Dragon Ball: Uprising
by foederatimerc
Summary: The is the story of a young Saiyan boy who is spared from the destruction of his planet due to the whim of an unlikely savior. Eventually, he'll discover that his race is far less respected than he once believed, and he'll be forced to earn respect through his work under the Planet Trade Organization.. At least until he finds out who's responsible for the destruction of his home.
1. Chapter 0: An Introduction to Kaido

It wasn't exactly pleasant to wake up because of a punch to the stomach, but it wasn't unusual for the young Kaido. That, and it wasn't like he had much of choice. Either he learned to wake up earlier, or he had to get used to the pain, because his father certainly wasn't going to change his behavior. The punch was actually much softer this morning, but still not something the boy could just ignore. Coughing heavily, the boy sat up, obviously trying to avoid further attempts to 'wake him up'.

"W-what?"

It was a dumb question, but it was the first to come to mind following the sudden punch. He knew full well the reason he was supposed to be up. He'd been preparing pretty much his entire life for it. So of course his father didn't sound too pleased about him apparently forgetting.

"Kaido, if you miss the fights, I'll beat you to a pulp myself. I promised King Vegeta you'd show him a good fight, and I will not be made a liar."

Rubbing his eyes now, the boy could just barely see the expression on his father's face. He was.. Excited. It was strange to Kaido, as usually his father was quiet and serious. The only times he ever saw the great Artiko with even a small smile on his face was when he was training with other members of the Royal Guard. Kaido could definitely understand where the excitement came from, however. For years, he had watched the same fights occur, and only now was he himself old enough to participate himself.

"I would never miss them, father."

Satisfied, the older Saiyan backed off from the bed, giving his son assurance that he wasn't about to strike again. It wasn't wise to, anyway, as it might just harm the boy's performance later that day. Then, he was out of the room, without another word.

This gave the still-a-little-sleepy Kaido some time to think about what was ahead. Every year, children in the capital like himself had the opportunity to show their strength and capability to the older Saiyans, as well as officials from the Planet Trade Organization. While there weren't many Saiyans eligible at moment, it was still a big deal. It would decide which one of the Saiyans coming of age would be selected for Royal Guard, which meant that once upon a time, Artiko himself had competed and won. So his father certainly wasn't going to be very happy if his son failed to live up to his example.

Getting out of bed now, Kaido's thoughts turned to his older sister Nachi, and how she had failed at the very same competition he was now expected to win. She had made it to semifinals before being knocked out, so she certainly wasn't a failure. Her display of power was still enough to attract the attention of Lord Frieza's men, but it wasn't enough for Artiko. Once she was taken off-planet, Kaido never heard from her again. If he lost like she did, he suspected his father would treat him the way. He couldn't have that. Conquering planets alongside other Saiyans in the Planet Trade Organization's name probably wasn't that bad, but it would make his father think less of him. He'd rather train and fight on Planet Vegeta then lose his role model's support and go anywhere else. He had to be stronger than his sister...

When he was finally dressed in his armor and ready to deal with his father once more, Kaido left his room, confidently striding out like the punch from earlier wasn't still hurting him. He was greeted by the sight of his father sitting at a large table, alone. It had been a long time since his sister or mother had joined the two of them to eat. His father usually had places to be, so his waiting was definitely because of the day's competition.

Eager to break the awkward silence that would've likely ensued once he sat down to eat, Kaido decided to voice his concerns to the only other person who'd care.

"Father, what was my power level the last time we checked?"

As if he would actually forget such a thing. He just needed to know if it was satisfactory, for that small boost in confidence it would give him to hear his father praise him once more. Rather recite the number, Artiko tapped a button on his green scouter, before reading off what it said.

"You're doing pretty well for your age. 450, and that's before you exert yourself. You have no excuse to lose, you hear?"

He had no excuse.. Well it was nice to receive some praise, even if it was followed by a threat of punishment in the case that he lost. Smiling somewhat confidently to hide his concern, he nodded.

"I won't, I'll make you proud."

His father didn't respond, but Kaido knew what he was thinking. He was probably remembering Nachi, and how she had said the same thing all those years ago. Like Kaido, his excitement was probably also tied with anxiety about the whole thing, even if he wouldn't show it to his son.

Both of them had a pretty big day ahead of them.

* * *

The streets of the Royal City were packed, which was something rare for Planet Vegeta. Too many Saiyans cooped up in the same place lead to fights breaking out everywhere, so most of the race was always deployed on missions to blow off steam. Today, however, it seemed like many of Saiyans with children of their own had returned from their tasks just to see their offspring perform in the many placement trials. Like Kaido's father, most of them were likely attending for more selfish reasons, but that was the norm when it came to Saiyans.

There were also many other Aliens present, with most of them being representatives of from the various Arcosians at the head of the Planet Trade Organization. Some others were likely just travelers, however, as they did not wear standard-issue battle armor. They were likely present to just watch, or maybe gamble on the results. In previous years, some mercenary bands had tried to show up and recruit as well, but that was soon banned by the Planet Trade Organization under order of Frieza himself.

By the time Kaido made it to the building where all the participants of the Placement Trials were supposed to show themselves, the magnitude of it all really hit him. There were around a hundred children present, and he only recognized a couple. He knew that he wouldn't be facing the vast majority of them, but it was still rather daunting to see how many Saiyans were willing to compete with him for a position on the Royal Guard.

After maybe another ten minutes of waiting, the growing group of young Saiyans were addressed by Zorn, the Captain of the Royal Guard who was charged with managing the whole affair. Despite his position and the responsibility that came with it, the captain didn't really look too pleased to have to deal with it. All of the contestants lit up and seemed excited once he actually spoke, however.

"Well, I have better things to do, so I think this is a pretty good place to begin." He paused for a moment to let the excitement die down, before continuing. "Welcome to the Annual Placement Trials. As you all surely know by now, your performance all throughout today will determine your first assignments as members of the Saiyan army and Planet Trade Organization. Prove yourself the best in your set of eight, and you'll get to considered for the Royal Guard. Prove yourself adequate, and maybe one of Frieza's people will want you."

He said the name 'Frieza' with such venom in his tone that it reminded Kaido of his father. It made sense that they'd both hate the Arcosian tyrant, since they were both companions, but it was still strange to hear someone risk punishment by speaking about Frieza like that in public. Behavior like that was often just reserved for bars and the privacy of one's own home.

"If you fail to accomplish anything at all, well..." He didn't really need to continue, as pretty much everyone knew what he was alluding to. Those that didn't prove they had any skill at all had to either participate again a year later, become fodder for the army, or work small jobs on Planet Vegeta as butchers and cooks. "Need I go on?"

He didn't. All the children were waiting to hear what arena they were meant to rush to, as well who'd be assigned there as well. Kaido was among them, as the last thing he needed to hear right now was how screwed up his future would be if he underperformed.

One of the children, who Kaido recognized as Arra, was the first one to answer, drawing the whole room's attention to herself. Loud and impatient, she made their collective thoughts known.

"Hurry up and tell us where we gotta go! I can't stand just waiting around." The way she said it made it rather clear that she wasn't just trying to insult Zorn and show off, but that she was rather excited about the whole thing. She looked like she could probably kick the ass of pretty much every other contestant around her, so none of the others chimed in to tell her to shut up.

Zorn actually seemed to briefly smile at her comment, likely because it gave him an excuse to cut back on the usual speech and rule-reciting. With a shrug, he brought up an electronic tablet from which he could read out names, and continued.

"Well, if you're in such a hurry, I guess you don't need the rules girl. For your sake, I hope you don't break in any throughout the matches. The following people must rush to Arena A: Erkin, Onio, Avoca, Ceria, Okaro, Totoma, Sallot, and Letas. Hurry up, cause if you're there late, you're disqualified."

Once he said that, the named eight rushed out, likely panicking from the threat. Zorn had quite the laugh at the sight, but that laughter eventually died down once it was time to list off the rest of contestants.

"In Arena B, in the southwestern part of the city, the following people will participate: Nipu, Lero, Kaido-"

There it was. Once he knew where he was meant to go, he left pretty damn quickly. He had no idea how much time he actually had to get to the arena or if there really was a chance to be disqualified, but he wasn't about to risk it. The worst part about it was his father likely knew where he was going to be assigned, as he promised the King would be in the audience. He hadn't shared the information with Kaido however.

What a wonderful father, that Artiko.


	2. Chapter 1: Out with the weaklings!

It wasn't long after the Kaido's arrival at Arena B when more contestants began to show up. Most were complete strangers to him, but he did know a few. Arra, who had previously shown herself to be impatient and tempermental to the Captain of Royal Guard himself, was a bit of child legend. Kaido didn't really know her really, but he knew of her constant tantrums and bursts of rage from various rumors that were spread by children their age. Once she noticed his staring, his eyes were quick to focus on the next arrival before she could get visibly mad.

The next one he knew was one he wished he didn't- Lero. Lero was bit of a brat, mostly due to his father being some sort of great war hero before he passed conquering a planet. Kaido was unfortunate enough to have to deal with the kid more than anyone else, because their close birthdates and similar status. Lero was already looking at him, so once their eyes met, he couldn't help but open his mouth.

"You ready to lose in front of your daddy, Kaido?" Lero said it confidently, as he knew Kaido wouldn't try to hurt him. Not because of strength or even because of patience, but rather their company. If Kaido started a fight in front of the crowds before the announcer even called him to the center of the arena, it wouldn't look good.

So all he could was make a retort.

"You ready to die like yours?"

That brought out a giggle out of one of the contestants near them, as well as frown from Lero. If Kaido had to face him, he'd definitely be remembering that comment. He didn't get to respond to it though, as the next thing they'd all hear was the sound of the Alien announcer. He was clearly one of Frieza's people, which was the usual for announcers in these kind of events.

"Contestants, be silent until called upon. My name is Papai, and I shall be both the announcer and judge of your performances today. Are the Saiyans 'Nipu' and 'Lero' present? If so, come forward."

Turning his attention away from Kaido, Lero faced Papai, and did as he asked. The boy who laugh, this Nipu, followed the instruction as well. He didn't seem like much, but it wasn't like Kaido had a Scouter on him to really know.

Once the two were at the center of the arena, Papai turned to the crowds, bringing forth an electronic tablet to read from.

"Saiyans of Planet Vegeta, these two young men you've seen come forth are both of the age of eight, but while they compete for the same position, they are not equals. Lero is mid-class Saiyan with a power level of 500, while his opponent Nipu is low-class and is a mere 375. However, with such a small difference in power level, who can really be sure which one will win? If you've come from off-world to watch or even bet, you'll have a few moments to do so. Lero, Nipu, you have a few moments to prepare."

The insult to Nipu's class wasn't really necessary, as for a Saiyan with less supposed potential, he'd apparently done well enough to get himself to a 375. Still, most of Kaido's support for the boy came from his disliking the idea of Lero actually progressing any further than the first round. He likely wouldn't be able to stand to Lero, which just heightened the chances of Kaido having to fight him himself.

Then the match began with an irritating and loud whistle that pretty much everyone, with the exclusion of a few off-worlders, annoyed.

Almost immediately, the previously cheery Nipu tried to strike at Lero with a series of punches. Lero had expected this, however, as the first thing he did once the match began was lean back, placing him out of the way for most of the strikes. Nipu didn't relent. In Kaido's eyes, Nipu was either planning something, or just agitated from the announcer putting him down because of his battle power at birth- because after a several moments of Nipu's attacks not connecting, Lero was able to shift the situation more towards his advantage.

It began when Lero grabbed his opponent right arm as it tried to punch him, as he followed that move by punching Nipu in the stomach. They were both wearing battle armor, so it wasn't like the hit was much, but as it was the first to land, it naturally received praise from the audience.

Kaido's brief thoughts about Nipu planning something were dashed, as it only got worse from there. When Nipu tried to use his left arm to break out of the hold his opponent had on his right, Kaido had to stop himself from yelling _KICK HIM_. Of course, Lero simply took advantage of this stupidity by kicking Nipu himself, which served to stagger the Low-Class Saiyan.

Defeat was at hand, as now that Nipu was basically defenseless, Lero proceeded to punch him in the jaw. Nipu was at least able to bring forth his still available hand to try and protect his face, but this was certainly not a good look for him. This continued until the now-bruised Nipu broke free from the hold on his right arm, but a quick sweep knocked him to the ground and rectified Lero's problem.

All this time, Lero had not been hit.. So of course those doubts creeped into Kaido's head. The last time they had fought, he was sure he had won, but he wasn't certain he was on the same level as Lero. Thankfully, he at least knew he was smarter than Nipu.

It wasn't long before the crowd actually began to cheer for Lero, and Nipu was rendered incapable to continue on. The oaf that had laughed at Lero had been punished, and apparently both Saiyans and Off-Worlders loved it. When Kaido looked to find familiar faces in the crowd, he saw that even his father was enjoying Lero's performance. So, great. Now there were more expectations to live up to.

Once Lero finally got off of a beaten and bloody Nipu, he flashed a smirk towards Kaido, before walking to his spot in the sidelines. Papai didn't even wait for someone to carry the defeated Saiyan off the arena before he walked to the center and began to speak again.

"The victory goes to Lero, son of Zukini. If the loser has any relatives among audience, do come forward and take him away. The first round will continue around him regardless."

No one came forward, but that was to be expected. Who would want to embarass themselves carrying off a weakling? The mere idea of it was enough to make many of the participants laugh to themselves. Admittedly, even Kaido himself couldn't help but smile, even if he previously wanted Nipu to win.

Seeing that no one even tried to jump out from the audience to help poor Nipu, Papai simply began to read from his electronic tablet again. "If the Saiyans 'Leku' and 'Arra' are present, come forward."

Now this, this was a fight Kaido really wished to see. He didn't know of Leku, but unlike with Nipu, he'd be completely content watching him get squashed. He was eager to see how the temperamental Arra would do, as were the majority of the other contestants. Once the two came forward, Papai continued.

"What you are all about to see commence before you is an evenly matched fight, between two mid-class Saiyans of similar strength. Leku has a battle power of 450, while Arra has the slightly lower 430. Like the previous match, the gap in battle power is small and shouldn't be too important, but if you're here to pick recruits for Lord Frieza, this kind of thing is necessary."

Like before, Papai gave an adequate amount of time for gambling and discussion in the crowd to die down, before the touch of a button produced the same strange whistle that allowed for the fight to begin.

This time around, there was no waiting for a series of strikes to finally land. Arra tried to rush forward, sure, but Leku began the fight with a simple blast of energy that easily pushed the young girl back far enough to give him some breathing room. It was smart, but it wasn't something that could be easily replicated. When Leku tried sending more spall blasts her way, Arra was at the distance where she could return the favor.

The sounds of the blasts colliding were loud from where Kaido and the rest of the participants were standing, but most of them were used to that sort of thing. However, as the fight progressed and Leku and Arra seemed not to gain any ground over each other, he finally spoke up.

"Come Arra, I thought you were stronger than this!" He had of course intended to motivate her to show some of that famous temper, but all it did was earn him a glare from the fighter. Leku, who up until now hadn't spoken a word, decided to chime in confidently. "Arra? She's all talk, I assure you. I could-"

He had briefly taken his mind out of fighting to boast, and as a result, he hadn't countered one of Arra's blasts. The yellow bullet of ki hit him in chest, pushing him back like his had done to Arra before. However, unlike with Arra, Leku was unfortunate enough to trip on the still-unconscious Nipu.

Once Nipu was on his back, Arra continued what she was doing, sending waves after waves of energy until she began to tire. Once the smoke cleared, Nipu's battle armor was cracked, and he was trembling, likely due to shock. He had to opportunity to stand up again, but his stance was weak.

Then suddenly, Kaido felt a large smack to the back. He expected it to be Lero, but when he turned around, it was one of the contestants, a girl he couldn't recognize. She didn't look too happy, to be honest. "What did I do?"

She simply gestured to the fight like it should've been obvious, like he was supposed to be a psychic. "What do you mean _what did I do_ , you distracted him. That was going to be an interesting stalemate to see broken, you interfered."

She wasn't wrong that his comment had distracted one of the fighters, but any Saiyan Warrior would agree that it was Leku's fault for taking his mind off the battle. It wasn't like it was an intentional action by Kaido, either.

He was about to explain himself, when he saw her expression change due to the battle behind him and decided to refocus again. Arra had apparently approached Leku, likely overconfidently, and had been struck in the nose despite his awful state.

Leku let out a laugh, and then began speaking again. This time though, he kept his eyes on Arra the whole time. "As I was saying, she's all talk." It was a bit ironic coming from the boy who couldn't keep his mouth shut, and it only served to anger his opponent more.

Lero, another person who should've kept his mouth shut more often, decided to make a comment of his own, now that Kaido and the girl were speaking. Of course, every word he spoke made Kaido feel like he was bleeding internally. "It doesn't matter who's talk and who isn't, I'll pummel either of you to the ground easily in Round 2."

That was enough for Arra, who was already angry from having to deal with one boastful opponent. Shouting as she did, she charged forward to tackle Leku to the ground with a horrible look on her face. Because of Leku's horrible stance, her plan succeeded, and with him below her she was able strike him more, uninterrupted. Once she was done with Leku, she slowly raised her head, practically growling at Lero.

"Let's see if those threats have any meaning."

And suddenly Kaido's dream had come true- he felt he was finally going to watch Lero get humiliated in public by someone stronger. Sure, he had no idea if Arra could manage it, but a guy could hope, right?


	3. Chapter 2: Kaido vs Kohl

For a few moments, Kaido was lost in his thoughts imagining the soon-to-occur fight between Arra and Lero. She supposedly had a lower battle power, but something told him that was because no one had bothered measure it when she was pissed. He must've looked like quite the idiot as he stared at Arra, as soon the glare she was directing at Lero was turned to him.

"What are you looking at? You think I can't back it up?"

As fun as it was to see her get angry at others, he had just witnessed how her simply getting angry was enough to help her win matches not in her favor. It wasn't wise to piss her off when he could fight her later on.

"No, I'm just picturing Lero's face after you're done with him."

It was by far the best possible response he could've given to calm her, but on the other hand, it wasn't the kind of response any other Saiyan would give. If his father was the one in his shoes, he'd have challenged Arra even further.

With a confident smile on her face, she got up, dragging the injured Leku behind she made it to where everyone was standing, she dropped him and moved to go get Nipu as well. She didn't really need to do that, and he was already trying to start a fight, so of course Lero needed to comment.

"Arra, put down that weakling and let one of his parents come for him."

Arra didn't get to reply to him before the other girl gave her own opinion, finally stepping out from behind Kaido to be in between him in Lero. While she spoke, the announcer addressed the masses with the news that Arra had one.

"Actually, it's not a bad idea to move them both. Them being there means we can have people trip. That's not as fun as watching people really fight."

Kaido honestly had to agree, but at the same time he'd now have to scrap some ideas of his own because of it. No longer could he get away with something like pushing his future opponent back into one of the bodies to get the upper hand. He hadn't intended to resort to that kind of thing immediately, but he wasn't going to let himself lose in the first round because he didn't feel like being underhanded.

Still, it put this strange girl in a new light. She apparently really found the idea of 'fair' fights important, as she had been angry about his interrupting Leku's concentrations earlier. Then the little interaction between all of them was ended when the announcer said the words Kaido dreaded.

"If the Saiyans 'Kaido' and 'Kohl' are present, come forward."

There it was. Kaido first turned to the crowd, specifically at his father. Artiko could barely stand still, and it looked like he was pointing his son out to the King.. So Kaido couldn't really let himself lose.

Kohl was the first to step up, and when Kaido realized that he'd be disqualified if he didn't do the same, he followed his opponent's example. This 'Kohl' was someone he had never seen before, though considering that could be said for most others in his arena, it didn't mean much. He was far taller than Kaido, and far more muscular, which made the guy an oddity among the contestants. Unlike the others, Kohl hadn't just come of age.

So once the two Saiyans were standing in front of one another, it was actually pretty comical. It was something Papai certainly had to point out himself. "Standing before you all now, are the Saiyans Kaido and Kohl. Kaido is the child of his majesty's loyal soldier Artiko, and stands with a battle power of 450. In front of him is the older Saiyan Kohl, the son of Shugesh, one of Lord Frieza's men. Kohl has himself a battle power of 600, which of course would make sense for someone three years Kaido's elder." Three years meant that Kohl either failed to survive the first round of the Placement Trials three times in a row, or hadn't attended at all. That meant that Kaido didn't need to fear his power level- Kohl had somehow not survived the first round before..

In the moments that followed, before the whistle could let them know to start the battle, the only voices that could be heard clearly were those of Lero, and another boy who Kaido didn't know. Kaido didn't turn to actually look at them, since he wasn't dumb, but he had heard enough from Lero to know that taunts and insults were coming.

"So a loser like Kaido versus someone so bad they couldn't even get picked by one of Frieza's goons in three whole years. King Vegeta sure is going to be bored out of his mind waiting for my fights." The other boy laughed in agreement, before commenting himself. "So, which one do you think will win, Lero? Kohl or Kaido? 'Cause-"

Then the whistle-like noise blared out, and the fight had begun. Kaido was lucky he was actually still looking at Kohl, as the older Saiyan was eager to get the first hit. Kaido just barely dodged the first punch, which was intended for his gut, by jumping back. Like some others his age he had enough ki control to fly, so simply jumping wasn't exactly a difficult feat.

Realizing Kohl would just charge forward and try a series of strikes, before Kaido hit the ground he put his hands together to send a blast of ki to the ground and disrupt Kohl's movements. He'd see he was wrong to think Kohl wouldn't charge anyway, as once Kaido hit the ground, Kohl had simply brought his arm up to defend himself and move forward anyway. Then, once he was close enough, Kohl kicked the unsuspecting Kaido in the chest, to send him to the ground.

Once he saw this, Lero decided to answer his friend's question. He didn't care for either of the fighters, but of course he held a grudge towards Kaido. He didn't care if his conversation was distracting. "Well Komat, my money is on Kohl. Kaido couldn't beat one of the Saibamen, even if his father beat the creature to an inch of its life." If Kaido wasn't a little busy, he would've tried to defend himself. But something told him that Kohl wasn't willing to stop for a brief moment and simply allow Kaido to give his retort.

Kaido wanted to get up and fight before Papai considered him unable, but he knew that Kohl would just strike him once he tried to. So rather than stand up at all, what Kohl did was blast the ground below him to propel himself into the sky and avoid being kicked.

"Well I can't blame you for thinking that way, Lero- but you're wrong. Maybe this Kohl didn't lose cause he's weak, but because-" From Kaido's vantage point in the sky, he could see that the girl who had gotten annoyed at him for merely trying to encourage Arra before had elbowed this 'Komat' in the stomach. "Brother, I swear, if you don't keep shut.." So they were siblings- that was nice to know, but not what Kaido should focus on at the moment.

No, instead, what he had to focus on was Kohl below him. Choosing to simulate the fight between Arra and Leku before him, Kaido chose to send a barrage of energy down on Kohl, to at least keep the opponent occupied dodging.. but like before, Kohl chose to simply try blocking the attack rather than moving out of the way.

That was when Kaido noticed what was going on- Kohl was showing of his endurance rather than agility, likely so he could impress someone from the Planet Trade Organization at least. He probably wouldn't be too damaged by the blasts since Kaido hadn't intended for them to do major damage, so it wasn't the worst idea. However, it showed Kaido that Kohl was pretty confident he'd win, despite his previous losses.

So as Kohl was pushed back by the barrage of blasts, Kaido came up with a bit of a plan. He dropped down to ground level, and once Kohl noticed this, he ran forward, probably intending to knock Kaido out and win this image of 'hardened soldier' he so desperately needed. As Kohl got closer, Kaido pointed his finger at him, concentrating his energy into it before firing the beam off. Unlike the previous blasts, this wasn't meant as some distraction. So when Kohl finally brought his arms to his chest to block it, he'd go through the painful surprise of realizing the concentrated beam had gone through his left arm and shoulder.

Kaido had made sure the beam wouldn't hit one of his organs out of respect for the rules, but the rules never said he couldn't poke a few holes in the much stronger Saiyan. Kohl was stopped in his tracks by the attack, likely because he probably thought blasts from a kid could only bruise him at best, and Kaido took this as an opportunity to continue, sending off weaker beams aimed at other parts of his body. The speed of these small attacks made it so Kohl couldn't block them all with his uninjured hand, and as a result he was forced to finally try dodging.

Lero was presumably watching intently, but Komat was risking his sister's ire by continuing on with his explanation. "As I was saying, before Suna so rudely interrupted me, he could be he's unintelligent. He has the highest battle power out of all of us, and look at him now, he's bleeding. So my money's on Kaido." Kaido couldn't have put it better himself. Anyone who willingly allowed blasts to hit them the way Kohl was doing definitely didn't deserve to be considered stronger. Regardless of battle power, concentrated energy when used correctly could split the strongest warriors in half.

When Kohl finally began dodging the beams of ki that Kaido was sending to approach him, Kaido decided it was time to look like more of a target. Pretending to be overconfident, he put his left hand behind him, gathering energy in it for a strong blast while he sent weaker versions of his beam attack at the quickly approaching opponent.

This false overconfidence drew Kohl closer and closer, to the point where he was about to strike Kaido's neck and likely knock him out. Once he was close enough though, Kaido moved his hand and fired the blast at a point blank range. Needless to say, it stopped Kohl in his tracks to have the blast fired at him from the side, and it sent him flying towards the other contestants.

All of them were able to get out of the way fast enough, so all Kohl would hit would be the wall. Kohl wasn't knocked out cold by this attack, but it kept him down for a few moments. While Kaido was more than capable of blasting Kohl while he was down, he didn't. Not only was it an unnecessary move, Kaido had already used a lot of energy and it wasn't wise to continue doing so when he'd have to fight someone else soon. So instead, he stood where he was, allowing Kohl to get back up and try to approach him.

Kohl had actually learned something from this whole experience, so he didn't rush forward like Kaido expected him to. No, he took out of his opponent's book and tried sending his own ki blasts from afar. These weren't too hard to dodge, as Kohl's left arm hurt like hell, and he was holding his side.

Kaido refrained from approaching Kohl at this point, instead merely moving out of the way of his blasts until the latter had used too much of his energy to continue the constant barrage. Unlike Kaido's attacks, these were meant to hurt- and a lot went into them.

When Kohl made one last ball of ki as a last ditch attempt, it's growth was stopped by one of Kaido's beams. A small explosion that would knock Kohl against the wall again was the result. This time, the impact did prevent him from simply getting up again.

When Kohl finally looked away from his fight to see how people were reacting, what he saw brought a smile to his face. Arra and Suna didn't really care for what they saw, but Lero was visibly pretty angry at the result. Komat was smirking, probably due to the fact that he predicted the result. These, however, were not the reactions that really mattered to him. No, the reaction that affected him was the one of his father.

When Kaido looked up at him, he could see that Artiko was smiling.


	4. Chapter 3: Twin Warriors, Komat and Suna

After the defeat of Kohl by his hand, Kaido was finding it rather hard not to gloat. His opponent had been three years his elder, and apparently he had a larger battle power. If it weren't for Kohl trying to show off endurance, Kaido would've likely lost. That would've been an embarrassment he'd never be able to shake off, something he had avoided. Going by scouters now, unless Komat and Suna were incredibly powerful, Kohl had much more of a chance.

Lero couldn't just let him have the victory though, not without saying another of his infuriating comments. "So you beat someone so bad they had lost four times before. Probably all you'll be good for, honestly." Strangely, it was Suna that spoke next, not really allowing Kaido to speak.

"He beat him with a solid strategy, Lero. Try hard enough, and your concentrated energy can always go through your opponents. If you wanted to, you can kill someone like that."  
Kaido would've preferred to hear praise from his father rather than a girl he barely knew, but it was nice to hear someone also come to his defense. She wasn't the last to comment on it, though. Her brother Komat had something to say himself. "I don't know, he needs a cool name for the attack for it to really be a legitimate way to win."

A name for the attack wasn't something he'd considered, but that was mostly because he hadn't gotten much use out of the finger beam or even made it any different to something anyone else could produce. "I'll.. consider names, I guess?"

Komat gave him a thumbs up, but he didn't get a moment to continue encouraging Kaido in dumb ways. Before he could, his sister pushed him forward. At first, Kaido didn't understand, until he realized that the two of them had been assigned to fight one another. Out of eight children in Arena B, they were the last two who remained who had not yet fought a match. He sort felt bad for them, seeing as this meant one of them would have to pretty much doom the other to a lack of respect for another year, but this fact strangely didn't seem to really trouble either of them. Then, just like Suna had predicted, the announcer stepped forward once more to announce the match. "If the Saiyans 'Suna' and 'Komat' are present, please step forward."

Kaido didn't know why, but in the moments it took for the two siblings to make their way completely up to center of the arena, he felled compelled to look to the audience. He felt like he was being stared it, which in all honesty, was pretty normal considering he was a participant in the trials. When he did look over everyone, he finally found the man in the crowd who had a stare intense enough to make Kaido uncomfortable. It was hard to make out what he was due to what he was wearing, but he certainly wasn't a Saiyan.. Who was he, and why the hell did simply looking in his direction make Kaido shiver.

Once Papai started to speak again, the alien seemed to focus on him instead, so Kaido stopped paying him mind to instead focus on the match that was about to begin. "For the last fight of the first round, we have the twin children of the Low-Class warriors Pankin and Vacato. The brother Komat has himself a battle power of 280, while the sister Suna has herself a solid 350. We've seen today that battle power isn't everything when it comes to such low numbers, so if you're making any bets, don't rely on the numbers too much!"

From his place in the center of the arena, a smirking Komat turned his head in the direction of Kaido, Lero, and Arra. Then, shouted loud enough to be heard even by the audience, he asked the question he'd probably be asking if he was in the sidelines like them. "So- Lero, Kaido, any bets?" His sister didn't look too pleased that he had turned to look away before the match had started, but it wasn't like she could give him a smack just to tell him to pay attention.

Lero didn't really hesitate at all. He was at least a little friendly towards Komat, so it wasn't much of a surprise to Kaido when he did speak up. "Kick her ass, Komat!" Komat of course gave Lero the thumbs up, before looking to Kaido. Honestly, Kaido didn't have anything against the boy, but he was very inclined to support the opposite of what Lero wanted. Shaking his head, he gave him a response. "Good luck, Suna!" Unlike Komat, she didn't really give him a response. Komat didn't really seem to take any offense to Kaido's comment, which was strange for a Saiyan.

Although she wasn't asked to, even Arra began to speak up now, also taking the anti-Lero viewpoint. However, as she repeated what Kaido had said in a less enthusiastic tone, the whistle that signified the start of the fight was sounded.

Kaido expected Suna to immediately punch him for being distracted, but what he'd witness instead was stranger than that. She stayed completely still, and was allowing Komat to actually turn around to her. When he did, that's when she finally began to move again. Without looking at his sister, Komat tried to punch her in the face. He seemed so confident about it landing, as he was laughing loudly as tried it. In reality, Suna had easily been able to move out of the way.

Once he actually turned around and saw this, the smile on his face remained entirely intact. It was unreal. "Seriously? Here I thought you'd try to maybe trip me over, to make a show of all this. Do something fun." He tried to look away from her and try it again to give her another chance, but a swift punch to the stomach from Suna would be dealt out to prevent it. Komat's laughter only increased, but he certainly didn't look like it felt good to him.

Kaido honestly didn't know what to think. Komat wasn't taking this too seriously, and he couldn't really comprehend why. If Komat fell now, he wouldn't get to join others his age in planet-conquering or even guarding King Vegeta. It wasn't like it was really planned out with Suna, either, as she looked rather annoyed about her brother not really putting up a fight.

"Komat, come on!" She said, readying her fists for another strike. If she really wanted to she wouldn't find it too hard to release a flurry of fists on her unsuspecting brother, but in her mind it wasn't fun. She needed a challenge, not a training dummy. "You shouldn't have come if this was all you're going to do."

Her brother seemed to sigh and give up on her really playing along, as his laughter stopped pretty suddenly. "You're the worst, you know." Then, he seemed to actually begin trying. He tried striking her several times, but like before, she was able to use her speed to dodge the attacks, moving further and further back as time progressed. When she actually hit him back, it was harder than before, and enough to send him back an incredible amount. To an onlooker like Kaido, it was just weirder than before. He could understand Suna being faster than her brother, but there was no way that Komat was this weak compared to his sister. Their power levels weren't _that_ far apart!

He was right about that at least. Once Komat had stayed on the ground for more than a few seconds, he stretched out a hand to send an unexpected barrage of ki blasts from the ground. The last thing Kaido managed to see before the attack landed was a smile appear on Suna's face, and her hands move into position.

Unlike Arra and Leku before them, there were no collisions caused to prevent an attack from landing. Suna didn't take the attack with a mere block, either. Instead, she had allowed a lot of energy to leave her body in an explosive wave, which prevent the blasts from hitting her and destroyed the parts of the arena directly under her.

When Komat saw this, his creepy laughter from came back, and he actually began to get up again. Then, silence again. His mouth was open, and energy was gathering inside it so it could be released into a large blast. This time, Suna didn't stick around for the attack to simply approach her, instead jumping out of the way and trying to run around her brother. However, as Komat's turn to look at her, so did the wave of energy. It was leaving quite the pattern on Arena B's wall as this went on, and more than once the other participants needed to move location to avoid being hit. Once this wave began to dissipate, Komat's tired laughter was replaced by one of his strange comments. "Now imagine if I could do that without tiring, and do that from any part of my body. It'd be quite the tool, wouldn't it?"

Suna was having none of it. He had actually been fighting her, so the last thing she needed was for him to just return to his old routine. From where she was, she sent a small blast of ki to distract him, all while she rushed to him. Her plan to shut him up worked, as he needed to block the incoming attack more than than he needed to rant about possible applications of his own power. When he lowered his arms to try again, all he'd get was a tackle to the ground.

Once they both had fallen, with Suna over him, he had one last laugh. He looked like he was about to try another ki blast at point-blank range, but then.. He didn't. Instead, all the Saian produced was a pained groan. It wasn't until Kaido looked closer that he noticed that she had kneed him where it would hurt.

Arra seemed to notice too, since she began to laugh more than Komat ever had when he had everyone's attention. Kaido felt bad for Komat, of course, but it wasn't like Suna had broken any rules- and she seemed even more averse to that kind of thing than even him. When she got up from the ground, her brother didn't even try to. He didn't need another painful attack done on him.

Once it was clear that Komat wasn't going to get up again or even attack, the strange whistle noise that would usually signify the start of a match played at a super high pitch. Then, it was Papai's turn to speak loudly and steal everyone's attention from the fighters.

"With that, the first round is concluded. In an hour, after the participants are given time to eat and rest, the fights will resume. Saiyans 'Arra' and 'Lero' will be fighting first, with their peers 'Suna' and 'Kaido' fighting after them. Then, the winners of the two matches compete against one another, as I'm sure you already knew." He then paused like he was trying to think of something, before speaking loudly a moment after. "Ah, right. Before I forget, someone remove the losers from the arena and take them to their guardians. Once that's done, the participants can leave to go anywhere, so long as they come back within the hour."

Kaido looked up to the stands for his father once this was said, but this time around, he didn't get a smile. Artiko was conversing with the King and Zorn, completely unaware that his son was trying to ask if he could fly up to him.

That didn't mean Kaido was being completely ignored though. Without a fight going on to distract him, the young Saiyan had realized that a certain someone was still staring intensely from the sidelines.

The alien was shorter than a Saiyan and in a hood, so Kaido couldn't make out much of its face- but what he could feel on him were those red eyes..


	5. Chapter 4: Mysterious Strangers

Once the 'speech' by the announcer was over, the audience began to play a far more active role than before. Parents and recruiters alike were now allowed to come down and speak to the contestants, so for a few moments it almost looked like a small battalion of Saiyans were descending from the skies to fight. Some parents, like those belonging to most of the defeated participants, simply dropped down to the ground to retrieve their children. In the case of Suna and Arra, their parents had come to congratulate. From where Kaido was standing, it even looked as if Komat was being praised, despite his failure.

Lero's father Zukini was not among the living, so instead, that young Saiyan had to deal with several of Frieza's men praising their dear leader and offering patronage. He didn't seem to like the offworlders very much, but Kaido doubted Lero would pass up the opportunity to boast about his latent power. Arra also attracted the attention of PTO officials as well, but unlike Lero, she didn't seem to mind them very much.

In contrast to all of them, Kaido didn't get a moment with his father or some Planet Trade Organization recruiter. Artiko was busy speaking to his liege, and it wasn't like Kaido had really put on that much of a show. Sure, he'd beat someone far stronger than him, but battle power didn't change the fact that his opponent had lost several trials beforehand. Kohl's losing streak had made Kaido's victory into something that was expected of him.

The only person in all of Arena B who really seemed to be focused on the young Saiyan was the hooded offworlder with his cold stare. Kaido was embarrassed to admit it, but after merely catching a glimpse of the stranger's red eyes from afar, he was the only thing Kaido could think about. The look had been enough to set off his senses before the twins had begun their fight, and it had completely paralyzed him afterward. Could he really be blamed for feeling a little bit intimidated?

Since his father wasn't going to be taking him anywhere to eat and he wanted to just get the hell away from the stare, the only solution that came to mind was to simply fly away and return soon. It wasn't uncommon or against the rules, and it was pretty much the only path he could take. Lero and Arra didn't like him, so he couldn't go to them. His next match was going to be against Suna, so he certainly couldn't eat with her. Unless he wanted to bother his father, going somewhere alone was the only choice.

There was a nearby Meat Distribution Center he knew the way to, and he knew from experience that around this time of the year, it'd be packed with all sorts of people. Parents might bring their children there to eat up before the next fight, and offworlders could also be there just to taste the meats Planet Vegeta has to offer. So, if he was lucky he'd have some sort of company. Once he settled on the location, he flew up into the air to look for it.

Then, to his dismay, the figure he was kind of running away from rose from the audience, flying up slowly and gracefully. The offworlder seemed to have a bodyguard, as he wasn't alone. Kaido admittedly stopped in his tracks when he saw the two, so they had ample time to approach him in the air. When they were closer, it wasn't too hard to describe him. The hooded offworlder he was the most afraid of was only slightly taller than the young Saiyan, but his bodyguard was tall woman with blonde hair and blue skin. The woman was wearing PTO Battle armor, but on the chest she wore an emblem that he had never seen before. The shorter offworlder seemed to be wearing strange armor of his own, but it was mostly covered by the same cloak that acted as his hood.

Now that they were so close, he knew he couldn't run away or risk being called a coward. So, he decided to be the first to speak. After all, maybe these were just officials here to pitch the idea of service directly under Frieza. He'd have to deny them as to avoid being compared to his sister, but if that was the case it wouldn't exactly be dangerous to simply speak to them. "I'm sorry, did you want to talk about something?"

The woman seemed pleasantly surprised by his tone, and honestly, Kaido couldn't blame her. Most of the Saiyans would be pretty rude if they were in his situation. If they just wanted to speak to him as recruiters they could've while he was on the ground, so they were automatically suspicious for waiting until he was farther from the Arena before coming to him. Once she began to speak, it became really clear due to her accent that she certainly wasn't from anywhere in this galaxy. "Your name is Kaido, right? My Lord and I have been watching you fight, and we were intrigued by that attack of yours- the finger beam."

So that was what this was about, his fight with Kohl? He felt relieved for a moment, and a smile slipped out. Mind you, it more a nervous smile than anything else, but it was a smile nonetheless. "Oh, that? I just saw that he wasn't dodging and decided I could do some serious damage. I didn't hit any organs though, so I think he'll be fine once he gets put in a healing tank."

Then, just as he was feeling a bit safer, the hooded one spoke. "But you could've killed him easily. Why didn't you?" His voice sent a chill down Kaido's spine, even if the question was pretty damn easy to answer. Kaido was lucky he didn't stumble over his words in process, as he doubted the image of weakling was one he wanted to wear for these offworlders. "You're not allowed to kill while fighting in the Placement Trials. It'll get you disqualified."

The woman seemed to understand Kaido's response, but she continued in her questions for her master's benefit. "But you'd still recieve offers from the Planet Trade Organization. No one of importance would really discount you for killing an opponent. My Lord simply wishes to know why you wouldn't demonstrate your ability in the easiest way possible."

The answer this time wasn't as simple as it had been before. His mother and his sister were both serving in the Saiyan Army, being given numerous assignments by Frieza, and his father hated them for it. Kaido needed to make it into the Royal Guard to avoid the same situation. The issue with simply saying this would be admitting his father's disloyalty to the Planet Trade Organization could get Artiko in trouble.

"King Vegeta lead my people through the war with the Tuffles, so I want to serve under him in the Royal Guard. If I was disqualified, I'd only get to help in conquests. And.. I agreed to the rules by participating, it wouldn't be appropriate to break them." He honestly didn't really feel the loyalty that his father felt, so he didn't really sound too genuine. He, like every other Saiyan, felt a primal need to fight. His father's opinion, and his own tendency to be as 'honorable' as possible, were the only reason he wanted to win so badly.

The woman seemed a little perplexed at first, but she understood what he meant. Kaido couldn't see the face of the woman's master, but the silence and lack of questions afterward made him uneasy. He didn't know if he had said something right, or wrong. He wanted to leave, but seeing as they had yet to declare their own intentions to, he decided to use the excuse of needing some place to rest up. "Sorry, but I have to go eat. Maybe we could continue this after I beat Suna in the next round?"

The woman looked over her master, who seemingly nodded. The 'Lord' then began to fly back to his seat in the arena, which left the older woman alone with Kaido. "We'll see you then, Saiyan. Good luck in your next match." Smiling a little, she gave a gesture that simply said 'you can fly away now'.

She didn't need to gesture twice. As soon as he had her master's 'blessing' he was ready to get the hell out of there, flying as fast as he could. Thankfully, her lord left before he did, meaning he could fly away without showing off how intimidated he really was.

He'd honestly fight all the remaining participants at once than have to deal with the strangers again, at least until he knew who they were and what they were planning to do. The longer that it remained a mystery, the longer this horrible feeling in his gut would remain.

* * *

 _Hey everyone!_

 _I don't usually write Author's Notes after stories since I feel they kind of ruin the flow, but this chapter is an exception. This one's shorter than usual, and it lacks the combat that the previous three have been packed to the brim with. I wanted to know what you all think of it, as well as ask what characters you want to see more of out of those you've all seen so far. Please, if you have opinion, either good or bad, leave a review!_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 5: Arra vs Lero

No amount of sleep or feasting could get his encounter out of his thoughts. While before Kaido was just made uncomfortable by the 'master' staring, now the young Saiyan had to legitimately fear him being a higher up from the Planet Trade Organization. Kaido needed to shine throughout the Placement Trials for his father's benefit- not some offworlder's enjoyment. He didn't care for Frieza's Saiyan Army, he only had the goal of following his own father's footsteps. So of course he wasn't going to jeopardize his chance by killing Kohl. He wasn't desperate for a job outside his home world like a lot of children his age. The strangers would've had more success trying to get the temperamental Arra to kill her opponents.

When he arrived at Arena B after the hour of 'rest', Kaido honestly had to stop himself from suggesting it directly. Sure, it'd probably get the strangers off of him, but it wouldn't be a victory he had really earned. Suna would definitely disapprove, if she could hear his thoughts. Although.. _most_ Saiyans would disapprove of his fearing the offworlders if they could see into his head. Komat might not, since he was a bit of a weird kid, but he hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.

These thoughts, as well as the feeling that he was still being watched intently, lead to Kaido being quite obviously uncomposed. He was smiling rather nervously, and looking around the arena- not able to remain still. To anyone who paid attention, it looked like he was either excited to fight or a bit nervous about what was to come. So Suna had a pretty good reason to approach him, seeing as her brother was no longer around to speak to her and the other two participants in the trial were already at the center of the arena, waiting for Papai to come along.

Kaido expected the first words of her mouth to sound at least somewhat aggressive since she was his next opponent, but she sounded more curious than anything. "What has you all shaken up, Kaido?" He wasn't about to explain his encounter with the offworlders to her, so the only thing he could do was lie.

Intending to play on her love of fights, he gestured at Papai, who was chatting with some other Alien official. He then pointed at Arra and Lero at the center of the arena. Both of them were pretty damn ready to beat each other up, but they were waiting on Papai's signal. "I want to see them fight, but the announcer is taking his time. It wouldn't hurt him to at least announce their names again, so we'll know the match is about to start."

She seemed to accept this explanation, as hearing him voice it brought a small smile to her face. Suna didn't appear impatient on the outside, but of course she wanted the fight to just begin already. Her own match would come after it, so after waiting an hour she didn't want to wait anymore than she already had. "Yeah, I get that." She took one last look at Arra and Lero, but then she turned to face Kaido alone. "Since we're up next, I think we should talk on the rules."

He wasn't the kind of person to break the match rules, so he didn't really need to discuss them. However, he wasn't going to give up on the opportunity of getting his mind off the strangers that still watched him from afar. "Please don't tell me you want to ignore them."

Her next expression made it rather clear that the answer to the question was 'no'. "I was actually going to ask that you not do anything like the beam attack you did to Kohl. I wouldn't do it either. If it hits an organ it could kill, and it honestly would end a fight before it really got exciting. That doesn't mean I want you to hold back anything else, though."

So she wanted to put on a show, like Kohl had. She wanted recruitment into the army, so it was better to draw out the fight to make it impressive rather than do something quick. If he became too eager to strike with a finger beam, it could end badly. He understood the reasoning behind it. For the same reason, the actual rules forbade the pulling of tails throughout the Trials. "So neither of us will use possibly lethal blasts? Killing was already against the rules, so don't worry- I wasn't planning to repeatedly throw those at you."

"Actually, I decided after what I did to my brother, kicking someone in the groin probably isn't too fun. So, I won't do that either. That sound good to you?" She didn't sound like she was really trying to limit him, which is sort of what Kaido was expecting. He wasn't planning to use a finger beam now that he had the attention of the two strangers, so she was pretty much just showing that she wanted a fair fight. It was admirable, since most people in her position would prefer to win by any means at all.

"I'm cool with that, but don't expect to win. I'm not lying down just because I got through the first round." He sounded pretty confident, which was a great tone when compared to how nervous he seemed moments prior. Talking to her and establishing some ground rules had helped him get his mind off of the offworlders, it seemed.

"It'd be no fun if you did lie down. I-" She seemed like she was about to perhaps boast a little, but noticing something had stopped her. To show Kaido the cause of this sudden break, she gestured towards Papai, who had finally finished his own side conversation. "Looks like we're finally getting that fight."

While he hadn't been telling the truth before when he said he was simply anxious for the fighting to begin again, Kaido was definitely still happy to see Papai seemingly prepare the next match. If Lero lost to Arra, Kaido could aunt him. If Lero won, well it simply met that Kaido could face him afterward in the finals. Regardless of the result, the fight was definitely going to be a spectacle he'd want to see.

It wasn't long after Suna noticed that the alien announcer actually began to do his primary job. When he began to speak, the crowds would quiet down, excited to hear what he had to say. In reality, he didn't really need to announce much considering everyone was likely familiar with the fighters by now. "Saiyans of Planet Vegeta, the time has come for the start of the second round. I can see that both the Saiyans 'Lero' and 'Arra' are present at the center of the arena, so allow me to introduce them both to anyone who's just arrived from another arena in the Royal Capital."

Gesturing towards Lero first, Papai began to sing his praises like some adoring fan. Kaido found it pretty sickening, but it didn't last too long. "First, we have Lero, the son of the fallen general 'Zukini'. He has a battle power of 500, and defeated his previous opponent without getting hit at least once. He's a safe bet, if you're here for the gambling scene."

He then turned his attention to Arra, who was giving him a dirty look for his previous comment. Considering Papai was an announcer and not really a fighter, it actually looked like he was scared into giving her praise as well. "Against him we have Arra, daughter of Bietz. She has the slightly lower battle power of 430, but she's shown us before that it can get higher the angrier she is. Don't think she'll lose simply because of her base level."

While Papai fell silent soon after to allow for discussions to go on in the audience about who would win, the alien had his finger on his strange tablet- ready to start the match in a second. So every moment that followed his introductions was full of tension for pretty much everyone on the ground. Then the strange whistle was sounded, and the match had begun.

Unlike the previous matches Lero and Arra had played a part in, there was no difficulty in getting to a stage where blows were actually exchanged. Instead of trying to exhaust his enemy first, Lero began the fight by immediately throwing a blast at the ground where Arra stood. His intention was very clearly to upset her balance, but Arra had some moves of her own.

By the time Lero had disturbed the ground underneath his opponent, she was already in the air, having jumped at him. He had enough time to bring his arms up again for a block, but the damage was done. Rather than being seeming untouchable for the majority of his match, Lero would be on the ground of the arena is seconds, with Arra on top of him.

It didn't take long for her to wail on him, bringing down her fists on the young Saiyan boy. Mind you, she didn't have much time to continue with this, for it wasn't too hard for Lero to use the ki inside him make an explosive wave around his body. Once that was done, Arra would be blown off of him, giving him time to get the hell back up.

Lero tried to rain down blasts of ki on her at this point, but none ended up landing. She merely rolled out of the way at first, before jumping up high in the air. When she came down again, it was through a targeted kick to his chest. This time, he was too preoccupied with firing blasts where he thought she was to actually defend properly. While he didn't fall on his ass like he had before, he was finding hard to keep his balance as he backed up.

She tried to pin him against a corner by following her initial kick with a series of punches, making sure she gave him just enough time to back up further and further, losing balance… It was admittedly a clever tactic, not unlike what Kaido had tried to do to Kohl before he realized the older opponent would just try to take on the blows head on. Lero wasn't dumb enough to fall for the trick, but he also wasn't going to just stand still and allow himself to be hit like Kohl previously had.

"Is this all you got, Arra? It's a surprise you weren't classified as a member of the low-class." He said with a vicious tone that Kaido knew all too well. It was smug and overconfident, which would be infuriating to Arra. She had him doing what she wanted, and soon she'd be able to beat him senseless- and yet there he was, talking like he had an assured victory.

"Shut it, already!" Her tone made it rather clear that her temper was rising, as the did the ferocity of her punches. They started to get closer to landing, but seeing as the wall was still farther away, it wasn't exactly an improvement of the original plan.

"I think you'd be better off working as at a distribution center, feeding the _real_ warriors. It's the only thing you're really good for." As he said this, it became obvious to Kaido that he was starting to move from his previous path. Lero wasn't trying to regain his balance, he needed to fall on his back for something..

Kaido began to open his mouth to say something, only to realize that if he helped Arra, Suna would definitely judge him. So he kept his mouth shut, and as expected, Lero fell on to his back. His legs, which were now in the air, were able to easily kick Arra in the gut now that she was actually too angry to notice his falling.

She wasn't sent flying as a result, but it was enough to stop her in her tracks and bring pause to everyone watching. Everyone but Kaido, who was partly regretting not having given Arra the information she could've used. Lero seized upon this surprise pretty quickly, and instead of getting up from the floor, his next move was to kick her legs out from under her, causing her to fall as well. It was disappointing to see, to say the least.

Before Lero could climb on top of her and try to finish the fight, he'd be interrupted by some infernal scream. Arra clearly wasn't enjoying the feeling of losing her fight, and Kaido need some scouter to tell that this mood of hers was going to help her out immensely. Lero stopped to try covering his ears, but once he saw that Arra would get up…

He threw himself on her, which strangely shut her up entirely rather than simply causing her to get angrier. It seemed to Kaido that he was holding onto her arm, trying to squeeze and break it… but he couldn't really tell what was happening well due to the distance.

Lero seemingly kept holding Arra's arm in place for next minute or so, using this opportunity to beat her down further… and she remained still, not resisting. Eventually, since the audience seemed to pretty clearly support the idea that Lero had knocked Arra unconscious, Papai stepped closer to examine whether or not this was the case. Then with a press of a button, he let everyone know the match was over.

Smiling cruelly, Lero got up from the floor completely, allowing Kaido to register what had just happened. The thing that Lero had been squeezing was Arra's tail. He had broken a pretty big rule, and Papai hadn't spotted it. Arra was now too beat up to even say anything about it.

Only Kaido knew.

* * *

 _Hey everyone!_

 _I know I said last time that I don't do Author's Notes often, but last chapter when I asked for advice, I actually got it! It's sad to admit, but in my previous attempts to write stories I rarely actually got a response to those comments- which is why I wasn't planning to do notes after these. I'm sorry this one took a while, but I had issues thinking up how the fight would go down. Hopefully I'll be able to release the next chapter far quicker than it took to release this one._

 _Oh, and I forgot to say so last time, but I have some character pages relating to this story in the Dragon Ball Fanon wikia. Just look up 'Dragon Ball:Uprising'! There you can get sneak peeks at what I have planned for this story._

 _Thanks for the read, guys!_


	7. Chapter 6: Suna vs Kaido

Out of all the Saiyans and Aliens watching, it seemed only Kaido had seen the dishonorable act. Arra could've turned the tide and beaten Lero, but her chance had been stolen away. Despite the praise and attention everyone was currently showering on Lero, Kaido felt he needed to do something. He couldn't let Lero's actions slide simply because they had gone unnoticed. Shaking with anger, he brought up his hand. In his clouded judgement, he believed that Lero having pulled Arra's tail required immediate retaliation. "You… you bastard!"

Red ki visibly gathered in his palm at this point, so there was no hiding his intentions. Papai was facing the cheering crowds at this point, but everyone else could see the young Saiyan's intent to fire at Lero unprovoked. Even Lero could see, and all he was really doing was getting ready to counter with a smug smile on his face. He was practically daring Kaido to do was Suna who finally tried to step in. Grabbing Kaido's arm rather forcefully, she tried to get his attention. "Kaido, what the hell are you doing? It's our match next, don't get yourself disqualified."

That was enough to stop him from firing, but as a result it also caused Lero to begin to laugh at him. "What's wrong, Kaido? Too afraid of her to even try? Or are you just too afraid of me?"

At this point Kaido was trying to snatch his hand back from Suna, but she didn't trust him at all enough to just let it go. He managed to get out of her grasp regardless, although it did take trying. Then, he stepped up to meet Lero as the dishonorable Saiyan returned to the sidelines. Suna mentioning how he could get disqualified had somewhat calmed him down, but he had an anger boiling in him now.

So all he did was glare at Lero as he moved to the center of the Arena, to help Arra off the floor. When Suna saw he wasn't going to try to attack anyone yet, she tried to help him with this. He didn't stop her, so it wasn't before Arra was laying down on the sidelines. At this point, Suna finally tried to speak again. "Do you want to explain what the hell just happened?"

His response was simple, and short. He was angry, and he needed to let out some of that anger in a fight. There was no point in drawing out any conversations if she had to fight him next anyway. "Later."

With that, he returned to the center of the arena, followed by an intrigued Suna. As he waited for Papai to actually begin announcing, his eyes drifted from his opponent to the crowd watching along. Artiko, Zorn, and even the King himself were staring at him, discussing something. From the way Artiko looked, it didn't look very pleasant. Clearly, Kaido almost blasting Lero had been noticed. Of course, they weren't the only ones watching. The strangers from before were still looking on, although now Kaido didn't feel as afraid of them. He was too upset to focus on how strange their stares felt. Thankfully, before this immunity to the staring could wear off, Papai came to his senses and actually began to do his job again.

"I see that both of the remaining participants are present. Then, for those who may have forgotten or just arrived, I advise you to listen. For this is the last match of Arena B's Semifinals, and the winner of this match will face the Saiyan Lero next."

He gestured to Kaido first, and then began. "First off we have Kaido, Son of Artiko, a member of his majesty's Royal Guard. He has a recorded battle power of 450, although he's shown he could take on someone with a level of 600."

Then, his attention naturally fell on Suna, who he'd also gesture to. "Secondly, we have Suna, Daughter of Vacato and Pankin. She has a recorded battle power of 350, but she's shown us already that she's a pretty damn good fighter. Maybe she'll overcome the disparity in power level like so many other competitors in other Arenas throughout the capital."

Unlike Arra before her, Suna didn't really seem to be displeased with how she was being described. If anything, it was Kaido who was still looking angry due to what had happened a minute or two before. He didn't really care about what Papai was saying, he just needed that damn whistle to sound so he could show Lero what he could do.

So, after what felt like eternity passed and the noise was sounded, the first thing he did was expel his energy outward as an explosive wave. He had expected her to try to rush in for the first hit and get caught up in this attack, but it turned out he was actually pretty wrong. Instead, Suna had taken several steps back in expectation that he would've rushed in. All Kaido managed to do with his first move was damage the floor under him.

It was admittedly more than a little relaxing to finally let out some of his anger though, so a smile would replace the frown he had on his face a few moments before. It was time to show her what he could do. She wanted a long and entertaining fight, and he was willing to give it to her. He moved forward as if planning to dash at her, and she began to prepare accordingly. If he came close, she would definitely dodge.

The issue was, he wasn't planning on directly hitting her. As he moved forward, he concentrated the flow of ki into his fists, making it look like he was holding balls of ki. The continuous flow of energy into them made the balls strong and unstable, and they threatened to blow with every movement. Even as she dodged out of the way of his punches, he continued doing this, until he finally felt the move was ready.

Jumping into the air as soon as she tried countering directly, he immediately released the unstable ki into a short-range blast that'd go in all directions. Due to the short distance between the two of them, Suna was forced to cover her face before the blast inevitably knocked her down to the ground. He was also pushed back a few feet away himself for firing it off while in the air.

Kaido wasn't going to attack her while she was down after his promise, so she was very easily able to stand right back up, completely uninterrupted. She didn't really look to upset, seeing as she was smiling.

Once she was up again, it didn't take long for him to try and attack again. He dashed at her again, this time intending to kick her in the head. This time, he wasn't as lucky. He had given her time to prepare, so it wasn't hard for her to simply raise a hand up and block the kick. This block was then followed by a punch to his stomach now that he was so close.

Now that… that hurt like hell. Considering Kaido hadn't really been hit himself throughout his first match, this was a lot. His armor took most of the damage, but that didn't change the fact that it was painful.

Once he fell to the ground, he didn't try to get up. She had promised not to kick him where it would hurt the most, so from the ground he at least trusted her not to get an unnecessary advantage. He took a moment to breathe, and then threw up a ki blast to distract her. While she was trying to deflect or defend against it, he moved to knock her down to the ground. It wasn't that different to what Lero had done to Arra when he kicked her legs out from the floor. The key difference was Kaido's intentions. He certainly wasn't planning to grab her tail afterward.

Unlike Arra before her, Suna didn't fall for this tactic at all. Rather than allow herself to be knocked down like Arra had, she jumped just as he tried. She remained in the air at this point, floating to stop him from even trying again. Suna didn't often talk during fights, but this definitely warranted a comment from her. "You couldn't have really thought that'd work."

He started to get up at this point, and she didn't try and stop him. She wanted to drag this on longer, after all. Laughing as he prepared his fighting stance, all he did was respond to her at first. "It was worth the try. Though.. this might be more fun."

Bringing his hand up into the air, he started to create a bright red ball of ki. It was growing fast, so of course Arra immediately began to back up and charge up her own attack. Kaido hadn't planned for this, but it was a nice surprise. See, he had another hand still available. He neglected his original attack for a moment to let ki flow in to one of his fingers instead, and when her ball of energy looked unstable enough, he let out a finger beam to cause it to explode before she could throw it at him.

The resulting explosion, as well as the fact that Suna was floating and not standing, meant that the young Saiyan girl would be blown out into the sky. She wouldn't be pierced by the finger beam since Kaido had been careful about keeping his promise, but now she was disoriented and very far up in the sky. In other words, she was vulnerable to Kaido's original ball attack that he'd throw moments later. She managed to catch a glimpse of the attack and try to hold it back physically, but she couldn't push it back at him.

Since she was more distracted than before, he considered firing another beam to explode the ball she was trying to hold her own against. He could've managed it without too much difficulty, but he didn't. He had promised not to try anything that could possibly be lethal, and two explosions to the face weren't exactly healthy for eight year-olds. That, added to the fact that he wasn't sure if he could properly aim precisely with the finger beam, meant that the technique would be shelved temporarily.

Instead, he just waited for her to finally get out of the attack's way by expending her own energy. When she was out of its path, it became abundantly clear that her armor had taken the majority of the initial damage. It was cracking, which let Kaido know that the tactic was pretty successful. Suna had wanted a big spectacle of a fight, and now she had one rivaling the several ki barrages in Arra's match against Leku. ...That gave her quite the idea.

Now that she was high in the sky, she was in the perfect position to try to bring on an energy barrage of her own. Her only problem was she had pretty much exhausted most of her immediate energy with the attack that ended up blowing up in her face. She needed a few moments of rest, a minute to charge up her internal battery. She was pretty good at close up fighting and reacting to things, but she obviously didn't have the same amount of energy in her that he had.

If she sent down a barrage, it would be weak and it would just be avoided. A singular beam would be far stronger, but also rather easy to dodge. Unless… "Come on Kaido! Let's end this with a bang!" She brought her arms together at this point, letting a white aura emanate from her hands. Just as she planned, this wasn't a challenge he was willing to avoid. He was confident he'd win. He needed to win. However, he had promised her a good fight, and he wasn't going to deny her what she wanted. Bringing his own hands together in a similar fashion, he prepared a wave of his own.

Silence filled the next few moments, as the audience was obviously waiting for quite the struggle. They came here to see children with a lower battle power than the average PTO soldier fight, so they hadn't exactly been expecting this much ki control. Then, the two the Saiyans fired their blasts, letting the whole Arena see the clash of white and red.

Despite the fact that both Saiyans were really starting to tire, it was a spectacle to watch… but it didn't last long. Eventually, Kaido's wave made its way to Suna, knocking her out of the sky. Kaido was of course rather proud in that moment for having shown off all his ability, but he was still conflicted.

In the moments where he should've been celebrating, Kaido was instead flying to stop Suna from hitting the ground enough to actually get seriously hurt. Rather than take the assured victory, he made sure to (just barely) catch her in the air and bring her down to the floor of Arena B.

She was still conscious throughout all of this, she was just exhausted and bruised. More of her jumpsuit was visible than her actual Battle Armor, as the armor was quickly falling apart due to the fight. Now on the floor, she chose not to try getting up again. Instead, all she could do was laugh to herself. "Well, I got the fight I wanted."

Even if the laugh was dry and weak, it was infectious. Even though the fight was still not over, Kaido was already conversing with her like it was. "That you did. If what you wanted was just to get picked for Frieza's army, you're definitely catching their interest."

A whistle signifying the end of fight played after a few more moments of this, it was only then that he began to look for specific faces in the crowd.

Zorn was smiling, Artiko was cheering, and even the King looked a little impressed. However, simply looking at these faces of approval strangely wasn't enough. Something was missing. No, someone. He couldn't feel the intrigued presence of the Strangers.

They were nowhere to be seen.


	8. Chapter 7: Identities Revealed

The fact that he couldn't find the two of them should've made him relieved, but it had the opposite effect on his psyche. If he couldn't keep an eye on them, they could sneak up on him in the small amount of time he had to rest for the next round- and he definitely needed rest. So he started look over the entire audience, looking for anyone who even vaguely resembled the blue-skinned woman.

He thought he caught a glimpse of her in the crowd, but his thoughts would be interrupted when a certain Saiyan girl spoke up. "Kaido, help me up."

It was then that he remembered where the two of them were. She had fallen from the air due to being hit by his attack, as well as her own exhaustion. He had caught her in the air and laid her down on the damaged arena floor. She could definitely make her way to the sidelines by herself, but she'd look like a wreck.

Once he realized the situation, he put his paranoia over the strangers aside to give her a hand. Though, he had to note that it was strange how open she was to him. Sure, she had pretty much commanded him to help her up, but Saiyans tended to want to do everything alone. Even if she was still proud to a certain extent, she apparently wasn't too proud to willingly embarrass herself getting out of the arena.

Once she was up on her feet and only required a little help to get out of the center of the arena, Kaido turned his attention to Papai, who was speaking to another member of his race. They were smiling, talking about bets. In other words, Papai was forgetting something rather important- to do his job. Sounding agitated, Kaido decided to call attention to this. "Hey, Papai! We get some time to rest, right?"

He must've sounded pretty annoyed, as the alien seemed both surprised to be addressed, and… afraid. He must've been even weaker than Kaido thought if the sound of an annoyed child was enough to unsettle him. Kaido was no Arra, after all. Papai raised a hand apologetically, before pressing a button on his tablet.

"So, with the victory of Kaido over Suna, this is the end of Arena B's will resume our matches in half an hour, and then you will see how Kaido fares against the like of Lero. Until then, you can make bets, visit other arena matches throughout the city, or even converse with the participants. For those who don't already know, the winners of today's trial will gain candidate status for his majesty's Royal Guard, before facing each other tomorrow. So you'll want to stay on this planet even after the festivities that'll follow all the matches today."

Once it was clear that the slightly spooked alien had nothing more to say, more than just a few people decided they wanted to come down to the floor of the arena. Kaido paid attention to each and everyone of them, looking for the mysterious strangers among them. Instead, he saw other alien officials from before, as well as the parents of Suna and Arra. When this search lead him to looking in the direction of his own father, he decided it was finally time to confront him.

Seeing as Suna was at the sidelines and her family was coming to look at her, Kaido chose to abandon her at this time, flying to his father and the King rather than just wait for the two strangers to find him. Strangely, it seemed like several of the Planet Trade Organization recruiters were going to try speaking to him, but Kaido flew past them. As flattering as it was to be noticed, conversing with his father was more important.

When he landed in front of King Vegeta, he made sure to bow, before looking up.

"Your grace."

The King looked to be pretty amused with the young Saiyan, probably due to the match that he had just arrived from. He wasn't angry, but nevertheless, his next words couldn't have sounded more condescending. "I didn't call for you, so you must be here for your father."

He gestured to a still-smiling Artiko, like he was giving permission for the Royal Guard to finally congratulate his son. However, Kaido didn't move any closer to his father at all. He continued to bow, looking towards the King instead. "Actually, I'm here for you. My next opponent, Lero, he can't participate in the next round. He should be replaced by Arra."

Although Kaido could only just barely see his father's face, he noticed pretty quickly that his smile had completely faded. He was a sycophant who did everything by the King's wishes, showing respect at every turn. Now, he had to witness his son get himself into trouble by making silly demands.

Zorn, who up until now been pretty quiet, chose this moment to step up and get in Kaido's face. He was taller than the King, though as far as Kaido knew, he was far weaker. Considering it was Zorn who first addressed all the participants in the Placement Trials about the rules, it was technically his job to deal with any rule-breaking. He wasn't going to let it bother his liege. "Oh? And why would we replace him when he's done nothing wrong?"

Kaido's answer was quick, and his voice was accusatory. He was far from the most observant person in all of Arena B, so he figured that at least one of them had spotted Lero's actions. "Nothing wrong? He pulled Arra's tail just so he could beat her to a pulp!"

There wasn't even a moment of silence for the three adults to think on it. Artiko was the first to speak of the three, moving up to Kaido and putting a hand on his shoulder. While it didn't look like much to anything else, Kaido knew this was his father telling him to start being respectful. "Lower your voice. You probably just couldn't see the fight well enough."

Zorn spoke up now, smirking as he thought on the situation. Kaido knew he probably found this new situation entertaining, which made the adult's face a lot more punchable. Sadly, it wasn't like Kaido was any match against him. So, he just had to listen to him give his stupid opinion. "Arra is in no condition to fight, anyway. It wouldn't be in anyway a good fight if we pitched her against Artiko's kid."

While King Vegeta's attention was initially gained by Kaido's loud proclamation of Lero's rule-breaking, it was quickly won over by Zorn's point. In his head, the King was also thinking about how good Lero was at hiding his dishonorable act. He could be useful as one of Zorn's men, and entertaining as one of the participants in further trials.. "The Sefaran announcer saw nothing, and neither did we. All we saw was you try to attack him in between matches, boy."

Artiko of course wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and win all the Trials, but he wasn't going to voice any displeasure at all- not when the King was involved. Instead, he reluctantly agreed with his two superiors. "Kaido, just go out there and face him yourself. I'll make sure the Sefaran looks for cheating, but Lero will not be disqualified. You should relish the challenge that he poses as an opponent."

Of course, this wasn't the answer that Kaido wanted to hear. Sure, he wanted to teach Lero a lesson physically, but he also didn't want Lero to be praised as someone who survived to the final round of the first trial. That should've gone to Arra. Had it been anyone else telling him this, he would've continued to argue it… but this was his father. His word was final. Sounding forced and reluctant, he gave a simple answer. "..Fine, whatever."

He didn't want to be anywhere near the King, Zorn, or his father if that was how they were going to treat the rules of the Placement Trials that Kaido held so dear. So, a moment or two after he uttered his response, he was flying the hell out of the area, trying to find some place to rest. As soon as he did, he noticed recruiters were eyeing him up again, and decided that he'd be better going literally anywhere else to avoid being approached.

* * *

It had been a solid ten minutes after his discussion with his father, so Kaido was still unsurprisingly upset. His need for peace had taken him from Arena B to Arena A, where he could watch some of the Trial's matches and possibly scout out future opponents. In his head, he also thought maybe watching others fight in the trials would be enough to calm him, seeing as he was used to doing such a thing yearly. However, it wasn't long before he caught on to the fact that he was being watched again.

However, what he felt was a passive stare rather than the intimidating look from the beginning of Arena B's trial. It was only her, the alien servant to the offworlder who he really feared. Her master was nowhere to be seen, so he was initially more curious than anything.

When the alien woman realized that she had been spotted by him, all she did initially was provide a confident smile to acknowledge him. It wasn't until like an entire minute of waiting that she began to approach. While her tall stature and built physique could've intimidated a normal child, to Kaido she was nothing without the terrifying presence of her strange master. He still wouldn't want to fight her, but he wasn't really going to fear for his life around her either.

Kaido was actually the first to speak, offering a greeting. "Oh, it's you.." He didn't sound too enthusiastic, but she didn't seem to mind. Taking her attention completely away from the actual match going on in the arena, she began to walk closer.

"Kaido. I take it your discussion with the Saiyan King didn't go too well." She said it with a bit of a smirk, which let him know that yes, she had been watching him from afar like he'd thought. However, he could usually tell when her master was watching him. Rather than being visibly upset at being stalked, all he was worried about was the possibility that the other alien was simply lurking right around the corner.

He didn't show this worry to the girl, but the first thing he tried to do was try to change the subject. Even if her master wasn't around, he didn't want to continue speaking on Lero's rule-breaking. He hated Lero for being so dishonorable, but he was smart enough to know not continue discussing the topic with strangers. "I don't want to talk about it with someone I don't know."

He could've told her to just leave him alone, but seeing as he had started the conversation, it wouldn't really be normal of him. So instead, he just gave the excuse. She frowned at this, but when her voice remained pretty friendly despite her expression. "Well, then I guess you should know who I am, since my Lord's taken an interest you. My name is Tahini."

Tahini's frown seemed to dissipate at this point in favor of a strange smile. Kaido knew it had to be fake, but if it wasn't for him being uncomfortable about her master's intentions, he would've fallen for it easily. "And where would your Lord be? I don't see him here."

She sort of shrugged at this question like she didn't really know. "He said to keep an eye on you, and he went to go check on that Arra girl. He's interested in her as well, although after that Lero boy took her out, even I don't know how long that interest will last." Although it likely wasn't intentional, Tahini bringing up Arra's loss was enough to get him to snap at her.

"Your Lord would be an idiot if he did that. Lero won because he broke the rules!"

It wasn't until he saw her surprised expression that he realized what he had said. Suddenly, he felt even more thankful for the fact that her master wasn't there. He considered maybe apologizing, but before he could, Tahini responded.

"I would suggest you never speak of my lord that way again. He wouldn't tolerate that sort of behavior." She wasn't necessarily afraid, but she did sound worried, like she expected her master to appear any second to retaliate against Kaido for speaking of him in such a way. "Instead, what you should do is prove to him that Lero is not as good as he seems. Win, even if you need to break a few of those rules you hold so dear."

Hearing her tone change from too-friendly to worried for him did more than just creep Kaido out. It sent chills down his spine thinking about the possibility that his little insult could actually get him in trouble, especially now that he was so close to winning the first trial like his father expected him to. Would this alien actually try and hurt him? Kaido didn't exactly have a way of measuring his power, but he just knew that the mysterious stranger could kill him without really trying…

All these thoughts just raised a question in his mind. A question he knew he needed to ask before he loss his opportunity. "Who is your master, Tahini?" There was a small pause following this question, but it felt like an eternity to Kaido before she actually answered his question.

"His name is Frigid."

* * *

 _Hey (Again)!_

 _So, this is a chapter I'm honestly not too proud of, but it was a bit necessary to the story I want to tell. It didn't have combat, similarly to Chapter 4, but I more had an issue thinking of how to write. So it took a bit longer than I hoped to actually put this all up. I'd appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, and even criticism, if you have it. Hell, if you have any questions, I could also answer those if the answers won't involve major spoilers._

 _Thanks for reading! I really didn't think I'd get as much attention as I've gotten so far._


	9. Chapter 8: Final Round: Kaido vs Lero

_Hey everyone!_

 _It's been a while, hasn't it? Allow me first to say sorry for the long hiatus. Initially I abandoned my weekly posting due to a family tragedy, but the truth is I just couldn't find the will to put this chapter to paper. See, I made an outline of how I wanted this fight to go months ago, but I soon found out that I didn't like the result of every writing session I lost enthusiasm, and then when Christmas came along I became distracted by other things._

 _However, I think it's beyond time for those who might've wished to see the story of Kaido continue to get this Chapter 8. I'm sure most of you have since forgotten, but I felt I should at least put it up. I'm interested in continuing the story further now that I've seemingly overcome my writer's block, but honestly I think Ill definitely need to hear feedback on this before anything like that. So please, let me know any thoughts you might have._

* * *

As Kaido left Tahini to rush back to Arena B, he couldn't stop thinking on who Frigid was. Even though he was young and rather uneducated regarding other races in the universe, it was obvious to him what the alien was. His name was distinctly Arcosian, and not too dissimilar to Lord Frieza. Kaido had never heard of someone named Frigid actually ruling parts of the universe the same way Frieza did, but that didn't exactly make the offworlder any less intimidating.

In Kaido's head, simply being a member of Lord Frieza's clan probably meant that this offworlder was going to be far stronger than any Saiyan Kaido knew. That, when added to the fear of being conscripted into Frieza's forces, was enough to make the young Saiyan suddenly wish he was a year younger and not even participating in the Placement Trials. The event that he had been waiting to participate in for years had now taken to him to a point where he could end up dead or worse- another disappointment, just like Nachi.

The only thing that got Kaido out of his trance was the sight of the Saiyan boy who had ruined his day to start with. Not only was Lero surrounded by alien recruiters eager to speak with him, but he was also having a conversation with the Captain of the Royal Guard himself. Even worse, it looked like Kaido's rival was still being praised rather than reprimanded. Zorn didn't care what methods the boy had used, apparently. Realizing this, Kaido stopped focusing on Frigid to glare at Lero and fume internally about the situation. Eventually, Lero noticed this venomous look and his smirk only grew.

To prevent a loss of sanity, Kaido tried to shift his attention to others around the arena that wouldn't annoy him further. He didn't even want to look at his father or the King, so he decided to instead settle for the other participants in the trials. None of the Saiyans that were defeated in the first round were still watching, and Kaido knew Arra was probably in some infirmary somewhere, either unconscious or furious. Komat and Suna were the only ones visible to him, and both of them seemed busy conversing amongst themselves. Behind the two twins were their parents, who were doing the same as their children.

Kaido wanted to at least complain to Suna, since he knew that Komat was friendly with Lero. He knew that Suna would definitely understand his anger against Lero for his dishonorable tactics, and maybe she'd even understand Kaido's newfound anger towards the King… Although, she'd likely be less understanding about Frigid and Tahini. She didn't seem like the type of Saiyan to fear someone based on the very little information that Kaido had acquired.

Once he finally realized that he was likely not going to find any comfort in the people his age, he was left to simply worry alone. This proved to be a horrible mistake, as it soon became apparent to him that he was probably still being watched. Looking around in an attempt to confirm this fear, Kaido would find that Frigid was pretty much undetectable. He couldn't distinguish from the offworlder's powerful glare and his own paranoia. So all he could really do was just wait until the match actually began.

It felt like hours before that time came, although in reality it was only a few minutes. Most everyone wanted to see Arena B's final match, so it wasn't like Papai could really stall that long. So as soon as Kaido spotted that the Sefaran was messing around with his tablet, Kaido immediately began to walk towards the center of the arena. Lero wasn't as focused on Papai, so he didn't follow suit until the announcer actually began to speak.

"Contestants, please step up. The final match of today's Placement Trial will be beginning soon."

Once Lero heard the command and saw that Kaido was ready to fight, it was like he had decided it would be best to purposely torture him by taking his sweet time. After a while of the slow walk, however, Papai seemed to catch on to what Lero was doing and he began to introduce the two fighters early rather than wait.

"Saiyans of Planet Vegeta, the time has come for the third and final round of Arena B's Placement Trials. While we wait for both of the participants to be in front of one another, allow me to give to introduce them to those coming in from other arenas." He gestured to Lero first, who was now just finally getting close to where he was meant to be standing.

"First off, we have the Son of 'Zukini', Lero. He took down his first opponent without being hit, and he brutalized the second so much she'll have to stay in a Healing Tank for a long while. If you want my opinion, he's strong enough already to be serving in Lord Frieza's army. He's also the participant with the highest power level, as he has a Battle Power of exactly 500." After hyping up Lero enough to make Kaido more than a little annoyed, the Sefaran gestured toward Kaido. "Going against Lero is the son of 'Artiko', Kaido. In previous matches, he's more than demonstrated his fighting ability and he's given us quite the show. Like Lero, he's a mid-class warrior and would do well serving directly under Lord Frieza's forces. He has the slightly weaker battle power of 450, although this alone shouldn't dictate who wins the match."

From the way Papai spoke, Kaido could tell he thought Lero would win. The Sefaran probably expected Kaido to go down after a long struggle, and he had probably even bet on it. The thought was aggravating, but he knew he'd soon have the opportunity to prove the Sefaran wrong. Lero seemed to have picked up on Papai's tone as well, as he wasted no time in making a comment.

"Hear that, Kaido? That's the sound of everyone betting against you."

Even though all Kaido had to do was wait until the whistle sounded to make Lero shut up, the stupid smile on his opponent's face was enough to trigger a quick response.

"I'd be able to hear them if you shut your-"

Then the mischievous Sefaran pressed his little button, making the tablet's strange whistle sound. Immediately, Kaido abandoned his own retort for an opportunity to strike. Lero had the same idea. The result was the two Saiyan children almost comically landing punches on one another at the same time. It hurt like hell for Kaido to be punched in the face, so he could reasonably assume that Lero was feeling the same. After they had both struck one another, it was like they had both backed up in unison.

Noticing how Lero was seemingly mirroring his movements, Kaido tried something stupid that Lero wouldn't try to mimic himself. He rushed forward, knowing that Lero couldn't do the same without causing himself a great deal of pain. However, Kaido seemed to have forgotten that Lero could simply dodge.

As quickly as he had jumped back earlier, Lero jumped out of Kaido's way. This movement of his was followed by an elbow to Kaido's back. This, added to his rushing forward, lead to Kaido falling on to the floor. All the while, Lero taunted him. "Well, aren't you angry? It's reminding me of someone."

I didn't take a genius for Kaido to figure out who Lero was comparing him too, and of course it only irritated him more to be reminded of Arra. Knowing that Lero would try to strike him again, Kaido was quick to get up from the ground. Then, when his concerns proved to be right, he stretched out his arms to release pent up energy in an explosive wave. The small explosion was not enough to cause Lero that much damage, but it was enough to force him back a few feet.

To follow up on this, Kaido haphazardly sent a blast in Lero's direction. Even off-balance, it wasn't too hard for Lero to redirect the blast like it was nothing. Before Lero could begin his taunts, however, he was faced with Kaido charging at him once again. He might've been able to defend himself from a blast while off-balance, but there was no getting away from Kaido's charge. Soon, Kaido had managed to force Lero on to his back.

His intention had been to put Lero through the same experience that Arra had gone through, but it wasn't like he was without his own vulnerabilities. Unlike Arra, Lero had nothing against cheating, especially after the Guard Captain had seemingly endorsed the behavior. All it took was focusing on grabbing Kaido by the tail, and…

Just as quickly as he had gotten on top of Lero, Kaido was off. He spotted his opponent going for his tail, and he reacted accordingly. It was almost instinct, like he was unconsciously watching his own weaknesses after what happened to Arra. However, it still took Kaido a few moments to realize what had just occurred.

Lero had attempted to break the trial rules again, and this time he hadn't even bothered to hide it. Sure, not everyone could see it, but Kaido was sure at least some of them could. However, there was no calls from the audience for the match to end. Life went on, just as it had before Lero was on the ground. In fact, there were more cheers from Lero's supporters, people who were happy Kaido was a bit farther from beating the other Saiyan down.

Fumbling with his words, Kaido tried to at least taunt Lero as he got up from the ground. He sounded angry and confused, and of course- distracted.

"Did.. did you really think would work? I'm not losing to you like that."

For once, Lero didn't take a moment to brag and he instead chose to get fully on his feet. When Kaido tried to follow his question with a blast, it was easily dodged by a now-flying Lero. That at least got Kaido to stop looking away to the audience's reactions.

From the sky, Lero came down with kick that Kaido was just barely able to move away from. Despite missing, now was when Lero chose to begins his taunts again.

"You think that now, but in a minute you'll be on the ground!"

As soon as he landed on the ground, he charged at Kaido, only to be met with the same force. Both of the Saiyans were trying to overwhelm the other, but for the first few seconds they were evenly matched. However, if they continued, Kaido at least knew that Lero might be able to get the better of him.

Concentrating energy through his mouth, Kaido ended up releasing a primal shout. Accompanying this shout was the small explosion of unstable ki, which was enough to shift the balance in his favor. As Lero let go of Kaido to cover his face after the blast, Kaido took the opportunity to punch him in the stomach. The strike wasn't enough to break through Lero's armor like a blast would've, but it left a crack. Then, when Kaido followed up this one punch with several more, the armor would crack more and more until finally Kaido tried to concentrate enough energy into his hands to sent Lero flying.

Obviously, Lero wasn't going to just stand there, just waiting for such a blast. Once he got over the daze of having an explosion so close to his face, he jumped back and began to concentrate some energy of his own. In a few moments, Lero had gathered more than Kaido could've hoped to… and to his surprise, it wasn't released in a blast. Kaido was ready to move out of the way if it had been.

"What the…"

Instead, what emerged from Lero's hand looked more like a blade. When Kaido tried sending out his own blast in retaliation, Lero rushed through the blast, redirecting it with his strange technique. Kaido tried to release a wave of ki to hold him back, but once Lero reached him, what actually happened was his own armor was cut through like animal fat. Even as he tried to fly out of Lero's path of destruction, Lero's blade cut through his jumpsuit and then his skin.

Although he was able to fly up without the blade doing _too_ much, there was now notable damage in him. Of course, he meant to retaliate. He was just barely above Lero, but Kaido intended to put everything into a single blast from above. However, when he looked down at his target, what he'd see was that Lero had something else in mind for him. With a wicked smile on his face, Lero brought up his blade of blue ki.

For a moment, Kaido felt joy seeing that he had avoided being hit by another slash of Lero's technique. Then, he'd feel a sharp pain, as well as air rushing by him as he fell back on to the ground. He tried to force himself to float up, but it was like he couldn't even manage standing up. Kaido wasn't even able to voice his confusion before Lero had chosen to reach down and bring up by his the collar of his armor.

Kaido wasn't the only one who was quiet though. Unlike before, it seemed that half the audience had gone completely silent with shock. However, it wasn't until Lero began to speak that the weight of the situation really got to Kaido.

"Hear that, Kaido? That's the sound of them realizing who's won. I can't blame them though- you can't win the Saiyan trials if you're not even a Saiyan anymore."

It was the last words that stuck out the most.

 _You're not even a Saiyan anymore._

Then a dark thought came to his head, and he began to struggle, trying to look for something. Lero seemed to notice this, but before he could say anything, Papai's whistle sounded, signalling the end of the fight. With a frown on his face, Lero pretty much dropped Kaido back down to the floor.

Kaido knew that the announcer was probably saying something, but none of it was being understood by him. He was focused on one thing, a fear of his that had yet to be confirmed. Then, a few seconds later, these fears were confirmed.

On the stone floors of the Arena, surrounded by debris and blood, laid a severed tail.

The sight of it warranted a response. As the crowd seeming cheered for and against the victorious Lero, Kaido brought up his hand, pointing his index finger. He didn't even give himself enough time to second-guess himself.

The first sounds Kaido heard immediately following the terrifying discovery of his severed tail was the gasps of the audience, and then the amused laughter of one very pleased spectator.


	10. Chapter 9: Royal Summons

During the few hours that followed his match with Lero, Kaido was barely lucid. Unsurprisingly, the first thing the Saiyans had chosen to do when they realized that the boy was maimed was put him under, throwing him in one of the healing tanks used for soldiers returning from war. At first he was intent on staying awake inside the machine, to ask where he was through the glass of the tank to the alien doctor tasked with keeping him alive. Eventually though, he was forced into sleeping by the strange qualities of the healing liquid.

At first, he dreamed of his sister Nachi, who'd been selected for the Planet Trade Organization's armies after her own placement trials. She'd only made it to her semifinals, but unlike Kaido, she had never really planned to win. She was ambitious and battle-hungry, practically made for the Frieza Force. She hadn't really been the most pleasant sibling a young boy could have, but Kaido still looked up to her.

In his dream, she looked the same as she did the day she failed in the Placement Trials. They weren't at the arena, but at their home. Kaido could recognize the dream as the moment his father had disowned Nachi, the last day she was allowed in their home. Artiko himself was nowhere to be seen, but Kaido could tell from his sister's fear that he'd be there any minute.

He couldn't help himself. Stepping out of a corner, he approached his older sister, to her shock. When he stretched out his arms to embrace Nachi, she was quick to stop him by pushing him back. It was at this point that Kaido really noticed that his body was much smaller, much weaker.

"What the hell do you want?"

She sounded more confused than angry, which was honestly understandable. Back then, Kaido never would've tried hugging his sister, as it likely would've resulted in relentless taunts for years to come. Now that he knew he'd never be allowed to converse with her again, there was nothing to stop him. Well, nothing except her immediate reactions.

"Father, he'll come and-"

She didn't give him an opportunity to finish. Instead, she spoke out at the mere mention of their father. It was obvious that she was fronting, putting on a brave face. As proud and headstrong as she was, she feared Artiko the same way he did. She couldn't show that to others, though. In that way, the two siblings were very alike.

"I don't care what he'll do. It's stupid to stay on Planet Vegeta, guarding the King when we could be doing so much more. It's not fair that we should stay here guarding the high-class when other Saiyans get to do so much more."

She had a point, but she still wasn't understanding his reasoning. He was upset because he'd never get to see her again, not because he was worried about the path she'd be going on.

However, as he opened his mouth to explain, their father entered the room.

* * *

Kaido awoke to the sound liquid swirling into a drain. When he opened his eyes fully, he was greeted by the sight that his now-drained tank was being watched by several people. There was the scientist from before, some new Sefaran that resembled Papai, and then Zorn, the captain of the Royal Guard. While the scientist seemed distressed, the other two seemed intent on releasing Kaido.

Once the tank opened, the scientist was the first to speak. He was holding up clothes, a new black jumpsuit.

"You're being summoned, boy. Get dressed, and go with…"

At this point, both the Sefaran and Zorn spoke up. The alien spoke first, calmly making an order with a sort of nasal voice.

"Me. You are being summoned by my Lord. I wouldn't keep him waiting. So I'd-"

"What is a Lord to a King? Your father and the monarch await you. If you can walk, you're following. If you can't, I'll drag you before them myself."

If he couldn't walk? While the two of them were arguing over who he'd go with, the only thing that really stood out in his thoughts was the doubt over his ability to travel. Then he began to remember his fight was Lero, as well as how Lero had ended it.

He couldn't feel his tail. He couldn't command it to move, to wrap around him like an adult's would. Rather then stepping forward to get dressed like he was being commanded to, his first action was to weakly move his hand to try and touch his tail. Instead, what he'd feel is a stub where it should've been.

Kaido was understandably mortified. A Saiyan without his tail was barely even a Saiyan anymore. Not only would he constantly be harassed over his inability to touch into his true power, he'd have to go through a long period of getting used to life without it.

Seeing his reaction, the scientist in charge of Kaido's care came closer, seemingly trying to get him dry and clothed. As he did this, he seemed to also be trying to calm the boy down. Helping him out of the now-open tank, his words were surprisingly good. "No need to despair, boy. Spend your nights in a tank just like this one, and your tail will return. It'll be even more sensitive, and you'll need to relearn your usage of it, but it'll be back."

That was a relief, although it couldn't fix how shaken Kaido was about the situation. He could hardly speak, and with every guided step he took with the scientist's help, he felt like he was about to fall flat on his face. Funnily enough, the scientist's calm explanation was enough to stop the Sefaran official and Zorn from arguing, which let Kaido know that this was news to them as well. However, this silence wouldn't last. Eventually, as Kaido was getting into his new black jumpsuit, Zorn spoke up once more. This time, he sound bitter, like he had lost a bet. Not too upset, but enough to be obvious.

"Regardless, he should just be happy he's survived this long. It's more than could be said for the other one."

While Kaido didn't understand what this meant, the Sefaran definitely did. Despite probably not even being half as strong as the Saiyan, the alien was quick to retort and speak as if he was invincible.

"The idiot broke the rules, so all this one did was act the same way. Perhaps if you had hosted the event _properly_ , the little brat would be alive."

That's when the results of the battle really became clear in Kaido's head. All the anger had boiled over at the very end, and once Lero had begun to maim him, Kaido had disregarded the rules. Desperate to avenge Arra and win the match for his father, Kaido had killed Lero, his enemy. Despite his hate for his rival, it was hard to admit the fact with pride. Lero had broken the rules and severed Kaido's tail, but he hadn't killed anyone. That was a break in the rules no one could ignore, something Kaido hadn't considered himself capable of doing.

It made the young boy feel sick to his stomach, which just accompanied the horrible feeling he had from losing his tail and likely everyone's respect. It was suddenly pretty obvious why Zorn needed him to come before the King, why he seemed so disappointed. The Captain of the Guard had wished to make Lero his pupil, and Kaido had taken his life.

Surely, Artiko had taken the King's side, the sycophant he was. In other words, gone was his possible career within the Guard. He was his father's last child, and there was no way that he could probably redeem himself. Like Nachi, he'd be cast out. No. His crime was killing when knowing the King had ordered against it, so he'd have worse. Exile or service under the Frieza Force would be a mercy.

Finally, after being completely silent before, the young Saiyan spoke up. He sounded far more composed than he actually was, considering the situation.

"My father… he wants me to come before the King?"

After giving the Sefaran a sour look for being a thorn in his side, the older Saiyan looked down to Kaido and nodded.

"Your father is smart, he follows the rules set out for him by the King. Unlike his son, he knows what boundaries can be crossed and which simply can't."

Once again, the Sefaran sprang up in Kaido's defense.

"Oh don't play that with me. Your King is arbitrary as you. If the other brat had killed this one, there'd be no eery summons calling him for a punishment."

Although the alien had likely meant to reassure Kaido of his decision to kill, the only thing he was doing was confirming Kaido's belief that he'd be treated horribly once he arrived at the palace. Before he could comment himself on their answers, he was caught between the crossfires of their argument once more.

"Insult the King once more, you fish-headed freak. See what happens."

Now, Zorn sounded far angrier. The alien had insulted both the King and him, and that would normally bring a Saiyan like Zorn to killing an opponent just to prove a point. Strangely, this wasn't happening now.

"The boy and I are under special protection, Saiyan. Harm me or him, and Lord Frigid will have be having words with both your King and his uncle. I'm sure even you can understand what that means, Zorn."

While Kaido had wanted to speak before, he was now too distracted with the Sefaran's arrogant tone, as well as what he had said. The strangers he had so been intimidated by before had seemingly also summoned him, against the wishes of the King. Clearly they held some authority, or else this Sefaran would've been killed on the spot for his insolence.

Finally, he muttered a few words of his own. They were quiet and lacking in confidence, but they were from him.

"I'd.. like to see your Lord before I see the King."

The reactions of both men were enough to send chills down Kaido's back. If it wasn't for the kind scientist who was helping into his battle armor, he might've even fallen. The Sefaran had a strange smile on his face that showed his fangs, and Zorn looked like he was about to pull out every single one of those fangs in anger.


	11. Chapter 10: A Fateful Meeting

_Hello, once again!_

 _Remember when I used to_

 _ **not**_ _need to explain my long absences? Those were the days! Well, recently I've suffered from a large amount of my time being sucked into a 25-hour internship experience I chose to stretch out over the entire month, as well as a bunch of afterschool activities I subjected myself to._

 _However, I didn't want to once again leave you all without a chapter, especially at the very end of the Saiyan Placement Trials arc. So, here it is. After a few hours of writing, (I'm posting this an hour before midnight) I present you with Chapter 10. Hopefully, its length, contents, and influx of new characters will be to your liking._

* * *

Before today, Kaido had never witnessed a member of the Saiyan Elite both embarrassed and furious. The young boy expected to be attacked for picking to ignore the King's summons, but Zorn did nothing but growl as the Sefaran led Kaido off. Either the Saiyan feared the Alien, or he feared Frigid, the Alien's master. If the latter was the case, at least Kaido could relate. If it was the former, Kaido was beyond curious to see what power the Sefaran possessed.

Once the two were out of the room, Kaido finally spoke again, his voice betraying the confident image he wanted to present. He was visibly still shaken over the revelation that he'd killed Lero, and his defying Zorn hadn't exactly helped him regain any composure.

"Who are you? I mean.. I know you're working for the PTO, but-"

Kaido wasn't too far into his question when the Sefaran put him out of his awkward misery. By now, the two were only a few feet from the infirmary, and there were surprisingly no Saiyan or Alien workers in the hallway.

"For such a killer, you sure lack confidence. You'll want to fix that- you can't look too nervous in front of the boss." The Sefaran stopped in his tracks at this point, though only to introduce himself. He didn't really care to be late himself. "The name's Cantalo."

Kaido found it a little comforting to at least know Cantalo's name, but a simple name was not enough to satisfy the young boy's curiosity. However, once he noticed Cantalo had begun walking again, he decided to leave the questions for later. He gave a small nod, and for the next few minutes there was only a silence.

It wasn't until they were out of the building that Cantalo stopped walking again. Seeing as Kaido was still having issues walking without having someone to lean on, this meant he was forced to stop as well. Before Kaido could question what was going on, Cantalo simply grabbed on to his arm and began fly off the ground at an unexpected speed. It understandably caught the boy off guard, and his next words made his shock very obvious.

"What the hell?!"

Cantalo didn't bother holding back laughter when he heard the boy's reaction. He did slow down a bit, though it still wasn't slow enough for Kaido to be able to focus his energy and fly by himself. For whatever reason, the young Saiyan was finding that the loss of his tail was doing more than just make him unbalanced.

"The medic said you might not get the hang on flying right away, so I figured I'd take care of it for you. We can't exactly show up late, despite your condition."

Kaido could understand the Sefaran's reasoning, but of course he still felt he deserved some sort of warning before he was pulled off the ground at such a speed. This annoyance even drove him to try and fly himself out of Cantalo's grasp, although the Sefaran might as well have been holding the boy by his non-existent tail. He simply couldn't escape and he'd have to deal with being treated like a ragdoll in the air. Cantalo felt the struggling, and from his voice Kaido could tell he was strangely impressed by the attempt.

"I see you still have some fight in you, boy. That's good. I doubt my Lord would want you if you presented yourself as meekly as you did to me."

That comment was what finally made Kaido ask a question he probably should've the moment he agreed to show up to the PTO Official's summons.

"What do you mean, want me? I know I have to find a placement in the army, but why does *he* want me in particular? There's other fighters, like Suna and Arra."

Cantalo was quick to just wave the question away, providing Kaido with an answer that no reasonable answer would be satisfied by. "Who knows? Maybe he likes your fighting methods. I was tasked to watch Arena C until I was ordered to watch your final fight. Whatever the reason is, don't disappoint him. He can't tolerate too many annoyances, ad he can end you a lot quicker than that dead kid."

So after displaying some confidence and curiosity, Kaido was left with more questions than he did answers. Cantalo seemed to be answering him honestly, but he was also likely just a good liar. Kaido's father had always warned him of Sefarans being notorious liars. However, since Artiko and his son weren't exactly going to be on the best of terms when Kaido showed himself before King Vegeta, Kaido tried not to pay too much attention to his father's advice.

Unsatisfied, the boy just took the simple answer for what it was- a warning. Like that Tahini woman before him, Cantalo was telling Kaido that he should toughen up. As meek as Kaido probably seemed to these aliens, the boy wasn't an idiot. He was a Saiyan, born and raised on Planet Vegeta. He knew how he needed to present himself as a member of the middle class. However, he was still young, so losing his match, his tail, and his strange sense of 'honor' had just been too much to present himself as over the overconfident Saiyan he was meant to be.

He knew he likely wouldn't keep himself together when he was faced with the frankly intimidating presence of Cantalo's superior, but it wasn't because he was dumb enough to think such behavior was the acceptable way to present himself. He knew how he needed to act.

"I won't disappoint him.." Kaido muttered, mostly to himself.

* * *

When they finally arrived at the ship, Cantalo's descent was a quick as his ascent into the air earlier. Thankfully, by holding on to the Sefaran, Kaido's landing was less embarrassing than it could've been. The two of them didn't land at the entrance of the ship, and it didn't take a genius to tell why. There were an abnormal amount of soldiers surrounding the vessel, crowding around it in a way that made it obvious they weren't too happy.

It didn't help that other vessels were also not that far away, providing curious onlookers- both Low-Class Saiyans that worked at the docks and aliens that had come for the festivities of the trials. Finding it hard not to be curious, Kaido was quick to question the situation they were witnessing. As he did this, Cantalo carved a way through the onlookers, pushing the weaklings aside so Kaido could be escorted to his Master.

"Who are these guys? Your soldiers?"

Cantalo scoffed, before gesturing to the angrier soldiers closer to the ship. They were aliens, and the most prominent of them had skin as red as Planet Vegeta's sun. Others had a more pink skin, and a few were of another race altogether.

"You'd be hard pressed to find Brenchans like those in Lord Frigid's service. No, these troublemakers are someone else's pets." Kaido had no idea what Cantalo meant by 'Brenchans like those', but he just assumed that was what the crimson skinned aliens were called.

As the two of them came closer to the ship and the alien soldiers that were causing the ruckus, Kaido noticed how many of the troublemakers took notice of the two and stopped were they were doing to glare. Then finally, the largest of these 'Brenchans' took a step forward, blocking their entry on the ship. He was bald, with a flowing white beard and many facial scars. He was also noticeably massive compared Cantalo.

"You one of Tahini's men? Why don't you tell 'er to come out of that ship an' face us? Camem's been looking for 'er for years."

Cantalo didn't look to be in anyway intimidated, but he wasn't rash enough to simply push through this Brenchan the same way he had with the others that had gotten between him and his task before.

"I'd love to relay the message, but there's an oaf in my way."

At this point, he did try to maneuver around the brute, who surprisingly let him by for a few moments. However, once the Brenchan saw Kaido, he was quick to grab onto the Sefaran's armor.

"The boy stays, for assurance. Can't have the bitch flying off on the ship with her stolen Saiyan."

As he said this, one of the scrawnier soldiers tried to grab on to Kaido. Strangely though, the boy was able to move out of the Brenchan's grasp without much of a thought. He had trouble walking only a few minutes prior, and here he was dodging faster than ever before. This swiftness didn't last.

They were surrounded, so it wasn't hard for the other soldiers to grab the weakened Saiyan child. Once Cantalo saw this, his voice began to show a level of arrogance and irritation that not even Zorn had been able to bring out. The Sefaran knew he'd have some issue fighting against all the soldiers, but that didn't mean he was going to fail his mission.

"This isn't Tahini's ship, fool. It's Frigid's. He'd have no issue wiping the very planet beneath your feet from existence, and he's only a few feet away, comfy in his throne. So unless you'd like to provoke his wrath, go on, take the boy."

After Cantalo said this, the weaker soldiers stopped putting in the effort to hold him back, and even in his weakened state the boy was able to get out of their hold. As this happened, Cantalo was able to glare at the larger Brenchan enough that the alien would finally let go of him.

"..Fine. But that bastard being 'ere is breaking countless treaties. Lord Frieza will 'ear of this, squid." The Brenchan than turned to the rest of the soldiers, and begrudgingly gave an order. "Come on boys, we'll get 'er next time. Next time, the brat won't be there to protect 'er."

With that, Kaido was able to take a few calm steps on his own, following Cantalo on to the ship as a lot of the onlookers began to go away. It seemed that the brief confrontation had sparked _something_ in the young boy, as he was able to walk without tripping over himself. He was shaking though, as he had anticipated having to fight a crowd of soldiers likely stronger than him. It also didn't help the really help the shaking that the soldiers mentioned complaining to Frieza, who held the most power in the PTO as well as direct influence over the Saiyan Monarchy.

Cantalo noticed the boy was actually walking himself instead of leaning on him, and he gave a sort of proud look before the entrance to the ship opened up and the two made it into the vessel. To Kaido's surprise, there was no battalion of soldiers ready to sally forth and clear the crowd just in case Cantalo had failed. Instead, the only person standing there was the only person the Brenchans had actually wished to meet.

Tahini was standing vigilant, waiting for Cantalo's retrieval of Kaido. At the sight of her, Cantalo put his hand on the young Saiyan's head, as if to show him off like prize.

"Captain, here you are. The boy you wanted, mostly unharmed."

Tahini nodded to acknowledge the job well done, before gesturing in a way that made it clear that the Sefaran was no longer really needed. With a bow to his superior and barely so much as a look to Kaido, Cantalo was off.

Now it was just Kaido and Tahini.

She was the first to speak, as Kaido could hardly find the words. The last time she had spoken to him, she had struck more than a little fear regarding the very man that he was about to meet. Not only that, but he had killed an opponent and lost his match. Despite having only seen her a few hours ago, it felt like a lot longer.

"Kaido, congrats on your victory. Hopefully, you're fit to appear before my lord?"

As she asked the question, her eyes lowered to where a Saiyan warrior would usually have their tail wrapped around them. It wasn't hard to see what she was getting at. Trying to take Cantalo's advice, the boy explained his doctor's diagnosis as confidently as possible. He even resisted complaining that he hadn't really won at all, even if the thought was still present in his mind after her compliment.

"They say my tail will be back, and all I need is more time in healing tanks everyday… and that I'll be at full strength in a day or two."

He tried not to shake too much, as despite giving good news regarding his strength, he knew he needed to back that story up with some confidence and pride. Thankfully for him, the alien woman didn't really care how much or how little he shook in her presence.

"I see. Hopefully, the Nyus-Brenchi outside didn't give you too much trouble. I was tasked to sit here and wait for your arrival, otherwise I would've wiped the floor with them when they first showed up."

As Saiyan children didn't really get to use the Scouters that were readily available to Saiyan warriors, it wasn't like Kaido could really verify this claim of hers by checking how strong she really was. He just nodded, dreading the meeting that was to come.

"Your Lord, he summoned me. Why?"

Tahini waved this question off, before simply giving a false smile and gesturing for the boy to follow her. As she guided him further into the massive alien ship, she gave her lackluster response.

"That's for him to say. Come, it's time for you two to meet once more."

Realizing that pleasantries and directions were the only things he'd get out of her, Kaido decided against any more questions and comments.

Eventually, the blue-skinned alien had taken him past several rooms filled with exotic looking warriors of every kind, before eventually reaching the only closed room Kaido had seen in a while. It had taken walking up a flight of stairs to reach, and security was seemingly tight. Despite the supposed strength of warriors like Tahini, there were PTO soldiers everywhere.

After gesturing for the boy and herself to let be through, the guards were all too happy to let them in. Inside, Kaido saw what he had dreaded. The room was one with a large window to see the outside world, with an elegant throne in the middle. In that throne sat the stranger that Kaido had met with before. This time, the alien lacked a hood, allowing the young boy to see with his own eyes the alien he was so afraid of.

Frigid was an exotic looking thing, with a white and blue body that lacked battle armor. Instead, it looked like his own body had produced white plating that was all held together by something that resembled a large teal colored gem. Another one of these 'gems' was present at the top of his horned head. However, it was Frigid's cold blue eyes that stood out the most to him. From the way the stranger had glared at Kaido before, the boy could've sworn the alien had bright red eyes that could set him aflame.

What finally broke the silence was Tahini kneeling down and make an introduction.

"My Lord Frigid, Cantalo brought the Saiyan boy as you requested."

Although it was not asked of him, Kaido felt compelled to kneel down the same way Tahini had, attempting to act respectful in the way that Cantalo would've expected him to be. Although it wasn't very Saiyan of him to kneel to someone aside from the King, it at least prove the correct move. As a response, Frigid began to smile.

"Thank you, Tahini. Go on and brief your men, I'll deal with the boy in the meanwhile."

The same way Tahini had been done with Cantalo once Kaido arrived, it seemed this Lord Frigid had been done with her. In a few seconds, Kaido was the only one kneeling. However, rather than shaking due to being nervous, the young Saiyan boy found himself to just be frozen in place, unable to speak.

The silence that followed wouldn't last too long, as Frigid wouldn't let it.

"Rise, boy. We've met before, but we've yet to formally be introduced to one another. My name Frigid, Son of Lord Cooler and Grandson of King Cold. I know my uncle likes to keep his subjects ignorant, so you've probably only ever heard of my grandfather, correct?"

Finally, Kaido rose from the ground and spoke.

"You're right, my Lord."

The Saiyan's answer was short, but his tone of voice would let Frigid know he was starting to understand the situation he was in. It was as the boy dreaded- this Frigid was related to Lord Frieza, the master of the Saiyan race and homeworld.

Despite Kaido's polite response, Frigid's smile from before faded to show he was a little annoyed. "I see. Well, I know who you are, but that doesn't mean you get to escape formalities. Introduce yourself, boy."

His first mistake had him tripping over himself to get words out of his mouth, just the way Cantalo had warned him to avoid.

"Sorry, my Lord. My name is Kaido, Son of Artiko. I'm just a mid-class Saiyan, sir. My father is on King Vegeta's Royal Guard, but that's all.."

Surprisingly, another smile formed on the alien's lips at this point. Despite Cantalo's warnings to be confident and strong, it seemed Frigid found some amusement in Kaido's mistakes. He certainly wasn't annoyed enough to kill him, after all.

"So that's why you wanted to serve under the 'King'. It's admirable to show loyalty to one's monarch, even if us in the Planet Trade Organization have more authority. I imagine you're looking forward to fighting in more of these trials in the coming days?"

The question was almost certainly a trick in Kaido's head. Surely this high-up official, this Lord of the PTO knew the answer to the question he was asking. Surely everyone on the planet knew that he committed a crime in the first trial, disqualifying him.

Shaking his head, Kaido voiced some of his frustration regarding the situation he was in. "I won't get to. After killing Lero, the Captain of the Royal Guard's favored candidate, I'm more likely to be exiled or executed instead of being offered a second chance. My father's influence wouldn't be able to change that."

Now that, that interested Frigid. He expected to have to intimidate this young Saiyan into abandoning his dream of serving Vegeta III, and instead he was being presented with the fact that boy knew he had no future as a member in the Saiyan King's retinue.

"So you killed the boy who maimed you, catching him off guard with a beautiful red beam. After giving everyone such a spectacle to look on, that's how they reward you? Exile or death? Not exactly fair, is it?"

Kaido could see what Frigid was doing, and he was honestly more disturbed than anything. He was afraid about his possible fate, sure, but he wasn't looking for sympathy in the alien. Kaido wasn't proud of striking down Lero in his moment of desperation. For the first time in the conversation, his words would come out sounding confident and strong.

"I shouldn't get the position, not after I lowered myself to Lero's ways by striking him down."

Frigid was a little perplexed by the Saiyan's comments this time around, but it didn't take him long to shift his attempt to poison Kaido's thoughts in a different way.

"Fine, you broke the rules so of course you wouldn't get the position. You killed, so you deserve death. But despite knowing that, you're afraid of death, what it means for you. That's why you're here instead of kneeling before your Saiyan King. Am I right?"

This time, Kaido found that he actually needed to think over his answer. Frigid was right. Despite the immense regret that Kaido felt over the death of Lero, he really didn't want to face his King or his father, knowing his punishment would be severe.

"I suppose so.."

Frigid was quick to seize on this new line of dialogue, now assured that he was right to shift his manipulation in such a way. Maybe he didn't need to order this boy around. Maybe he could make this Saiyan bound to him in a different way.

"Luckily for you, I came here searching for someone like you. You see, my uncle, he just goes on and on about you Saiyans. 'Monkey this, monkey that'. He's obsessed with your people, and it's sparked some interest in me. I came to observe the youth of your 'warrior race', and your form interested me. The way you took down Kohl, the way you ended Lero, it was all entertaining to watch."

As he said this, Frigid got off his throne, approaching Kaido again. Like before, Frigid's presence unnerved the Saiyan further. Despite not being able to read what Battle Power Frigid had on a scouter, Kaido just _knew_ the alien was not someone to be trifled with. So as he began to speak of his interests and intentions, Kaido just remained quiet.

"Let me spare you from your death, Saiyan. You have the potential to become a fierce enforcer of the Planet Trade Organization's authority, a potential that would be wasted under the service of Vegeta or Frieza. Rather than be executed or exiled to conquer some barren rock for my uncle, stay on this vessel."

At the end of his proposal, Frigid was standing directly in front of Kaido. The two were of similar stature, but Kaido still felt like his will was being dominated by the alien in front of him.

"What do you say, Kaido?"

In a moment, Kaido was made to worry over the many things that such a proposal entailed. He would be spared the wrath of King Vegeta, but he would never be able to return to his home. Artiko had never forgiven Nachi, and he certainly wouldn't forgive Kaido. If he left under the service of this Lord, he'd be signing over his service to someone who could take his life at any second… but there was a chance that he'd die if he showed himself to Vegeta anyway. There was also the possibility of eventually meeting his sister or mother again if he left…

The boy found it hard to speak, but there was one action he could do while trembling with fear that would give Frigid all he needed to know.

Kaido knelt before him once again.


	12. Epilogue: Placement Trials Arc

Once upon a time, Kaido had been a promising child of a respected Saiyan warrior. He was practically destined to follow in his father's footsteps over his mother's and he wouldn't have had it any other way. Now, things were different. Despite only a month having passed since his departure from Planet Vegeta, the boy had a very different future ahead of him. Kaido was a recruit in Lord Frigid's roaming army, and the lowest among them all at that. Rather than waking up with a punch in the gut every day in his room, Kaido woke up to shouting from the new superiors now tasked with making sure he adapted to the new environment.

Even now as he looked at himself in the mirror, he could spot differences that helped him look older than he was before. His old battle armor was gone, as it had been destroyed when the Saiyan was put to the test by much stronger soldiers. He soon found out that he'd need to pay for a replacement, so all he wore now was the dark blue jumpsuit that had been provided to him. He would've been wearing a standard blue scouter, but after losing his armor, he had stashed it away to prevent it from being broken. His superiors were lenient enough to allow him to break dress code when the alternative was him being even less capable of coordinated strategy in the future.

Apart from his clothes, there were other subtler differences. His tail, which had previously been reduced to a stump, was starting to recover nicely. Like the medics on Planet Vegeta had suspected, spending nights in a healing tank would eventually lead to its regrowth. Right now his tail was more sensitive than ever, so he preferred to keep it wrapped around his waist. Finally, there were the bruises. There was a lack of cultivated creatures like Saibamen for the boy to practice fighting, so the only form of 'training' the could get on the vessel was the constant beatdowns from other soldiers he could get to fight him. None of these fights ever escalated to become unacceptable, and since nights could easily be spent inside the healing tanks due to Frigid wanting Kaido to fully recover from his maiming, Kaido would usually be fixed up the next morning.

After a few seconds of musing over the slight differences in his character, Kaido yawned and began to get out of the roughed up jumpsuit. Once he was completely naked, someone behind him spoke.

"Are the constant brawls really necessary, Kaido? Our Lord gave you permission to use the machine for the recovery of your tail, not so you could constantly abuse it in some strange attempt to seem stronger."

The voice belonged to one of the vessel's medical staff, a old reptilian-looking alien with scaly green skin that always looked like it was a few minutes from molting. His name was Meron, and this point, Kaido had honestly just gotten pretty used to ignoring the alien's complaints every night he returned to the infirmary. Today would be no different.

"Meron, read my battle power out to me. I want to see if there's much of a difference." As he asked this of the alien, Kaido moved to get inside the healing tank.

Meron sighed, before pressing a button on his usually ignored red scouter.

 _ **PI PI PI PI PI PI PI**_

Without giving the number much thought, the medic simply relayed what appeared as he configured the healing tank for Kaido's use.

"Not much growth, to be honest. You're still in the six hundreds, six thirty to be exact."

To Meron, who worked with pretty strong individuals constantly, this wasn't much of a big deal. However, Kaido smiled when he heard the number. He was about as strong as a lot of low ranks now, but most importantly, he was stronger than someone like Lero. Over the weeks since Lero's death, Kaido had twisted his own guilt into something productive. Rather than allow himself to be consumed by the idea that he had only defeated his opponent unfairly, he was trying to become stronger and show himself that given enough training, he could've defeated Lero without the circumstances present during the match. So far, Kaido was succeeding in this attempt.

"Yeah, yeah. Just hand me the mask and flip the switch. Give it a few more tries, and I'll be stronger than most."

Kaido must've sounded really unconvincing, as Meron just shook his head and did as he was asked. Soon, the boy had the mask on, and all he needed was for the tank to be filled with the thick blue liquid that could heal him. The liquid took its time, however, leaving Meron enough time to close the conversation with his own thoughts.

"Listen, you're only inviting negative attention by abusing my services. The men you brawl with now will only get worse towards you if you keep the appearance of weakling just looking to be hurt. They might even hurt the tail you care so much about."

By now, the thick liquid was up to the boy's waist. Now it was really filling his tank. Despite this, Meron continued.

"You'll soon lose favor, just like all of our lord's token pets. Believe me, boy. You have no idea how hard this life is going to get."

Kaido could've responded with something vicious, but he just let the alien put a voice to his own frustrations. Why waste the effort to respond to thinly veiled threats when he was mere moments away from drifting away into a tank-induced coma? If Meron wanted to rant for hours, the Saiyan wouldn't protest it.

"You just wait until we reach-"  
"-No. 37. They'll stick you in-"  
"-you'll see what it's like."

And like that, Kaido was out, barely understanding or caring about what the doctor had to warn him about. When he woke up, he'd have more of this strange new life to look forward to...


	13. Chapter 11: Cantalo's Guidance

The first thing Kaido felt when he escaped his dreams was the feeling of being violently shaken. It was of course annoying, but it was significantly better to the punches to the gut he had become accustomed to when he lived on Planet Vegeta. Instead of being awoken by his father, the man in front of him was another soldier. A Sefaran with a fishy grin, horns, and strange mucus-lined skin. It was Cantalo.

"Come on, boy. Wake up, or I'll toss you out of bed myself."

The first words out of the lieutenant's mouth were hostile, but they still couldn't really inspire the young boy to get off the bed with haste. Kaido had honestly gotten used to being threatened by people on the ship, and as a result he wasn't really scared into moving. This was probably a horrible attitude to have when it came to strong warriors like Cantalo, but to Kaido's luck, it didn't backfire.

Cantalo seemed to be just messing with him, as the boy was able to get up as slowly as he wanted to. After a few moments of rubbing his eyes, he was able to quickly notice that every other recruit was still comfortably sleeping. At this point, Kaido finally sat up to speak.

"You're not waking up everyone else. So why me?"

Cantalo offered his hand, and then gave his explanation. He sounded far less hostile now, confirming the idea that he was just trying to mess with the Saiyan.

"We're about to arrive on Cooler No. 37, and our Lord wants me to help you get acquainted with how things work. You can't just be a part of the crew, you see. You'll need to take on some missions to prove you're worth his patronage."

Kaido took the Sefaran's hand, and once he was out of his bed he began to run all that Cantalo had just said through his mind. Immediately, two fears came forth. One about himself not being worth the patronage, and the other being a concern that he was just going to be offloaded as a garrison soldier on this 'Cooler No. 37'. When he finally voiced his newfound concerns, he chose to only really voice the latter.

"So you're helping me get used to things. Not just leaving me behind, right?"

Kaido, as much as he wanted to hide it, sounded displeased at the very idea. Like the Sefaran did with most of Kaido's concerns, Cantalo brushed the question off with a non-answer.

"Not that I know off, though it does depend on how much you screw up. You might be too valuable to our lord- or maybe his favor has ended and you're just another subject. Who really knows?" Cantalo's smile only really became more prominent as he described the many possible outcomes, which made Kaido want to punch the Sefaran in his reptilian face. Thankfully, the silence that followed wasn't too long, as Cantalo had an order for him. "Anyway, we should get going. Get your battle armor and scouter on, so we get moving. I want to get you briefed before we actually arrive on the surface, so I can take you to one of Lord Cooler's assignment centers as quickly as possible."

At this point, Kaido just kind of stood in the same place awkwardly, trying to think of what to say. Clearly, Cantalo hadn't heard of how Kaido was constantly getting himself in brawls with older low-ranking soldiers. Otherwise, the Sefaran would know that the boy had already gotten his battle armor into beyond terrible condition.

After seconds of just waiting for the words to come out of his mouth, Kaido decided it was best to show Cantalo rather than tell him. The Saiyan boy knelt down to open the locker beside his bed, and in seconds he had both his blue scouter in one hand and one of the shattered battle armor shoulder pads in the other.

"My scouter is working, but I've already gotten my armor is… well, you can see its condition."

Kaido expected to finally see the Sefaran get mad, but what he got instead was Cantalo's roaring laughter. It was more than a little strange to hear the alien laugh so hard, and how long this lasted didn't really help. When Cantalo stopped laughing, he sounded more amused than malicious.

"How the hell did you already manage that, of all things? I'm sure the quartermaster told you how much a replacement costs."

Kaido nodded at this, before slowly setting the broken shoulder pad down and placing the scouter firmly on his ear. It was embarrassing to have Cantalo know, but at least the lieutenant wasn't yelling at him.

"I brawled with a few soldiers I taunted into attacking me, to train and all. It was a big group, so eventually lost the armor. I didn't have the scouter on since I didn't need a distraction, and then I found out we pay for our own replacements afterward. I don't really have the credits to pay, so.."

Cantalo was a little confused as to why the boy was picking fights in his first month, but he had heard some reports that the boy had grown quite a bit in power since he was first taken in. So he didn't really care too much. However, a member of the Frigid Battalion not wearing battle armor was a no go.

"Well, would you like a replacement? You could pay me back once you've earned some credits during assignments and tasks."

Kaido was a little surprised to hear the offer, as he hadn't really expected anyone to be that considerate in the Planet Trade Organization, regardless of whether they were in the Frieza Force or the Frigid Battalion. Not even the kindest of Saiyans, excluding maybe some of the low-class non-combatants would do that. They'd have just stood by and watched as Kaido took more damage in battle, laughing along.

After giving it a bit of thought, Kaido nodded. Smiling, he accepted the offer.

"That'd be great!"

But this smile and cheery mood wouldn't really last long, as Cantalo's immediate reaction to Kaido's acceptance was to walk a few feet away to the next bunk and open some sleeping alien soldier's locker. Kaido immediately recognized the alien as one of the soldiers that Kaido brawled constantly, and he knew the armor that Cantalo soon held in his hands belonged to that sleeping soldier.

Before Cantalo could walk back to the Saiyan with the new armor, Kaido raised his hands in protest. He had expected Cantalo to go through the proper quartermaster, not for the Sefaran to go into someone else's belongings.

"Not that one. Or any other stolen armors. Something from the quartermaster is what I want."

Cantalo looked really confused at this request. With his brow raised, he put the white and yellow armor back in the alien's locker before speaking again.

"You're a bit of a snob, I see. You like things all new and polished. It's a waste of an opportunity not to take to Litt's armor, since he's your size and no one would notice but him. It'd cost you less, too."

Once again, Kaido immediately gave voice to his displeasure in response. He actually sounded pretty confident and angry, which was honestly not what Cantalo had come to expect from the child at this point.

"I said I wouldn't take stolen armor. I don't care if it costs less."

Cantalo just shrugged, and then gestured for the boy to follow him out of the room. As he did this, he chided the boy one last time about cost, which only really served to annoy Kaido.

"All right, but you'll be paying even more now. No idea why the armor has to be new, considering you might just get it ruined during whatever mission we get you assigned to. But, if you insist, I guess I can't convince you otherwise…"

* * *

Only a scant ten minutes after being woken up by Cantalo, Kaido was 750 credits in debt and now proudly wearing black and blue battle armor. He was more than a little annoyed that the Sefaran had tacked on 250 credits to the price the quartermaster himself was giving the armor at, but he chose not to voice this annoyance due to Cantalo's superior rank. After they'd left the quartermaster, the two had sat down in one of the vessel's many hallways, where Cantalo had promised to finally begin his briefing.

"Cooler No.37 is a planet owned directly by Lord Cooler, the father of our lord Frigid and the brother to Frieza. He's not really present in this galaxy much, which is why you likely haven't heard of him. The planet we're about to reach is one of the few he owns in it, and it serves mainly as a border world to garrison soldiers and give out tasks. It's not a pretty place, and it's beyond barren, so you probably won't like it all too much."

Already, the information was starting to get too much. Kaido knew Frieza had a brother, since he had already been told of Frieza's relation of Frigid when the boy swore loyalty to the Frigid Battalion almost a month before. However, the boy hadn't really been expecting to enter another Arcosian Lord's sphere of influence this quickly.

"Wait, so if Cooler doesn't have much influence in the North Galaxy, why assign soldiers for missions here?"

Cantalo had anticipated questions, and he was able to answer rather quickly.

"Lord Cooler may not own many planets in the North Galaxy, but Frieza doesn't exercise complete control over it either. There are many primitive worlds all over, waiting to subjugated or conquered. Although he's mostly focused in the South and East Galaxies, it doesn't hurt to keep options open in the North."

Kaido's next question was one he'd had his mind on ever since he'd come to grips with the fact that he'd have to be a soldier for the Planet Trade Organization rather than a member of the Royal Guard.

"What about Saiyans? Will we encounter any of my people while we're there?"

He had asked the question with people like his mother and sister in mind, wondering whether or he'd get to see them any time soon. Just like before, Cantalo was able to answer on the spot. This time, however, he could shake his head as well.

"There are no Saiyans that serve Cooler, aside from you, who serve Cooler's son. Unless any of Frieza's forces desperately need to refuel, you can be pretty sure you'll never see them on Cooler No. 37."

Kaido stayed silent for a few moments after this little explanation, before he gave up trying to hide his real concern. He hadn't seen his family in years, with the exclusion of the father who had probably already disowned him. Although it wasn't natural for adult Saiyans to care about that sort of thing, Kaido was still young.

"My mother Hipa and my sister Nachi are both in Frieza's Saiyan army. Is there any chance I could meet them any time soon?"

Cantalo took a moment to respond, seemingly confused by the young boy lamenting the distance from his relatives. Obviously, the Sefaran hadn't really thought the boy cared. Kaido was a Saiyan, after all…

When the Sefaran finally came up with his answer, it was surprisingly lacking in mockery. It was, however, still pretty blunt and honest.

"Unless you get personal leave, which you won't get for a long while, I doubt you could come in contact with either of them. Frieza certainly won't be too pleased with any Saiyans swearing allegiance to his nephew, even if you are but a small child. So you can't expect the Emperor of most of the known Universe to aid your goal."

It was beyond disappointing to hear this, but Kaido knew better than to stay on the topic. Cantalo had already seen a vulnerable version of the boy before, so it wasn't really wise of the Saiyan to give him more ammunition. Doing his best to remain as composed as before, Kaido quickly moved on to the next important question- one that related more to Cantalo's own assignment.

"Alright… well, what kind of missions do you think I'll get? I want to change how the other see me, to get stronger than all them."

Cantalo was obviously going to be more amused than confused about this, so Kaido was at least now able to move the Sefaran's focus away from Kaido caring for his immediate family. This didn't mean Cantalo would stop being blunt, though.

"Boy, you could kill off an entire world and it won't ever stop someone from seeing you as a runt. You're at…" At this point, Cantalo pressed a button on his scouter, making the machine give of its loud scanning noise.

 _ **PI PI PI PI PI PI PI**_

"...Six hundred forty-three. That's not bad for a kid, and you're definitely stronger than before. However, there are still many soldiers on this vessel that could wipe to floor with you. You're not even five percent as strong as me, and I'm nothing compared to Tahini and Lord Frigid. So, you'll just have to get used it."

It was both nice for Kaido to hear how much he'd grown and disappointing for the boy to hear how little it really mattered. His intuition about Frigid's power had been correct, and the Arcosian lord was far stronger than anyone Kaido had ever met.

"So, what? Taking over a planet alone wouldn't help?"

Cantalo shook his head, before offering a response just as quickly as before.

"It might get you some sort respect from people of your own rank, but you'll always been seen as entitled… especially since you won't be conducting you first mission alone. I've been tasked with following you, to rescue your sorry ass if you come close to death. Once you get used to it, perhaps you could at least advance in rank through working alone."

Kaido didn't know what to think, to be honest. On one hand he wanted to prove himself and survive his first mission alone. On the other, his fear of death hasn't at all dissipated since he killed Lero and was summoned to appear before the King of the Saiyans. He appreciated that Cantalo would be standing by to rescue him in the worst possible scenario.

Not wanting to seem overly eager about the prospect of Cantalo being a safety net, he just nodded silently at the mention of the Sefaran being his temporary protector. Then, an idea came to mind.

Pressing a button on his own scouter, the boy decided to measure Cantalo's power rather than just rely on the Sefaran's own words.

 _ **PI PI PI PI PI PI PI**_

Just as the numbers came up on his screen, Cantalo began to speak, giving voice to the result in a boastful way.

"That'd be 19,375. More than your King, which is why it wasn't too hard to intimidate that Zorn fellow out of my way back on Planet Vegeta."

Kaido was understandably amazed. This was a power he could only ever really dream of achieving, and it was coming from a mere lieutenant in the Planet Trade Organization. It made him a little afraid too, as it made the boy wonder what the device would show him if he used it on someone like Frigid.

But then a thought hit him. The mention of Cantalo being stronger than King Vegeta reminded the boy of the true power of a Saiyan. There was a way Kaido could vastly improve his battle power, and with the same method, King Vegeta could resist even Cantalo.

"You could beat him _now_. But if he could access the full moon, he could become much stronger than you could ever hope to be." The comment came off as hostile, but Kaido hadn't really put much thought into how it sounded until after it was out of his mouth. After all, with the Great Ape form, he could possibly overcome many enemies he had no chance of facing in his base form. Add on the fact that Kaido had come close to losing access to the form entirely, and it was basically impossible to stop himself from bragging about his race's true power.

To his surprise, he found that Cantalo was more interested than offended at the comment. The Sefaran just turned Kaido's rude comment into an opportunity to brag. "If you say so, boy. I wouldn't pass up a match with your King if he were really that capable, but it wouldn't really be smart for someone like me to go around slaughtering Client-Kings sworn to follow Frieza."

Then an idea apparently came to Cantalo, brought on by Kaido's out of turn comment. His signature coy appeared on his face, and then the Sefaran continued.

"This power… it's because of his tail, right? Perhaps it might even be some use to us."


	14. Chapter 12: The Sutorian Candidate

Upon his arrival on Cooler No. 37, Kaido had finally realized how much he missed his home. To contrast the red deserts and vibrant cityscapes of Planet Vegeta, the landscape of this barren world did nothing but remind Kaido how different other worlds would be. The air was hard to breathe in, and the only thing even vaguely reminiscent of Kaido's home was some of the Arcosian architecture. However, the majority of the buildings were more slums than anything in comparison. All of it was covered in the planet's ashy sands. It was confusing to the Saiyan, seeing as he believed the number was just meant to be a garrison planet, but just a short walk to what Cantalo called the 'assignment center' cleared somethings up.

Countless aliens approached them during the walk, clearly trying to size them up or sell some useless baubles. Some approached to beg as well, which lead to the boy concluding that the residents had to be people stranded on the world during intergalactic travel. Cooler No. 37 was pretty far away from a lot of Planet Trade Organization worlds, after all. Perhaps the Cooler Corps garrisoning the world simply didn't care. A quick use of his scouter told Kaido that they can't have been much of a threat regardless…

When they finally made it to the 'assignment center', it was hard for Kaido not to comment at the petty excuse of a military building. It was a simple one-story building built in the Arcosian style. However, its once marble-white walls and blue windows were caked in the ashy and chalky grey dust. The windows were hardly usable, and what should've been majestic architecture was permanently ruined by the strange conditions of the world. It didn't help the structure that outside, it was surrounded almost entirely by the alien slums and intoxicated soldiers. It seemed that this 'assignment center' was more of a tavern than anything.

It wasn't until the time came to enter that excuse for a military building that Cantalo breathed a word about the strange new atmosphere he'd brought the boy into. However, it wasn't about the strange new world the two were on, or even the state the official administration buildings were in. It was a warning.

"Listen, boy. Going in, you'll see a lot of.. 'Locals', traders, and some off-duty soldiers drinking. They're not our focus. What we want is near the center of the room, its a large electronic board where you can find yourself a task. Once you've selected and submitted your request for the assignment, I can have it accepted for you. Don't get distracted, don't force me to stop what I'm doing to do the work for you."

And like that, the Sefaran that was meant to be his guide made his way into the building, soon joining a mass of soldiers that were sat down in the corner, drinking. Kaido instinctively followed him, but he stopped himself once he noticed the very electronic board that Cantalo had told him to take heed of.

It was pretty much the only part of the structure that looked pristine and maintained, and it had countless lists and paragraphs of information, all in Galactic Basic, a language Kaido barely knew how to read. Being a member of the middle class had only earned him the basic education that a foot-soldier needed to work with scouters, and his father wasn't really too keen on his child needing to learn to written language crafted by the Arcosians that now dominated the Saiyans. Thankfully, there was a small queue of people waiting to interact with the device and find more information on the device, which gave Kaido a few moments to analyze it all a little better.

It took him a while, but soon he could pretty much make up what the soldier at the head of the line was looking into. The humanoid was apparently researching a raid assignment, where he was expected to destroy a few settlements and steal a large amount of primitive peoples to cripple the planet's progress. Kaido was more than a little uncomfortable with this, although not because he pitied the target. He was a little scared about the logistics of it all. Could he, a child, manage something so complex? Wouldn't it have just been easier to kill or subjugate the target and then sell the planet? To a Saiyan who intended to use his Oozaru form as a means of power, he wasn't really sure he could handle a job like that without going all the way and screwing up.

For the next few people to make inquiries at the board, tasks were not nearly as complicated. A Sefaran not too unlike Cantalo in appearance even found a task that Kaido envied quite a bit. It was an extermination job on some large icy world only a week away. It seemed to be stuck in a period of long nights, and there was a part of Kaido that really wanted to ask the Sefaran to allow him to do instead. However, he knew the request likely wouldn't go down well with the soldier he didn't know.

Eventually, when there was only one person in front of him in the queue, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Before he could turn around, the man behind him had effectively pushed his way past him. This man was no soldier. He had long white hair, violet eyes, and clothes that would've been elegant if not for the dust that now caked some of it.

Immediately, Kaido was ready for a fight. He was used to having soldiers on the ship trying to push him around, and he figured this was no different. Before striking though, he put a voice to his anger.

"Hey! I was in front of you!"

From his reaction, it seemed that this strange man hadn't really expected much of a response from the kid he skipped past. He didn't shift off to let Kaido pass, instead providing an explanation in an annoyed tone.

"Give me a moment, child. I need to add a mission to this damn registry. It shouldn't take too long."

This wasn't really excuse the boy was willing to accept, but he did pause to think on how to respond. Perhaps it was this man's job to do that sort of thing? No, he wasn't wearing battle armor. Not even non-combatants got out of wearing that.

Before Kaido could threaten the man, Cantalo appeared. It seemed the Sefaran had heard the Saiyan raise his voice. Despite his act of not really caring, clearly the Lieutenant had been paying attention to the queue.

"Good luck with that. It's not possible to add something from here." Suddenly, the Sefaran's neutral tone became far more hostile. "So let the boy fulfill his orders and go talk to someone who can add to the board."

The Saiyan didn't know whether or not to smile. He appreciated being backed up by someone much stronger, but at the same time he did think he could take down a non-combatant pretty easily without his superior needing to step in. Kaido didn't get another word in before the white-haired alien responded. He was aghast, seemingly offended by the mention of more difficulties in getting his task done.

"What, and wait even longer than I already have? You're joking!"

By now, the man in front of them all in the queue had finished using it, and he was mostly just paying into to their conversation. Many people were, in fact. The soldiers especially expected a fight or something similar to occur, and they found it too entertaining not to gawk.

"Every client of the Planet Trade Organization goes through the same thing, Sutorian. Just because your people hold sway in this part of the galaxy doesn't mean you get to ignore the system."

Now that comment of Cantalo's got some attention from the people. They all clearly agreed, and this only set the alien off even more. To Kaido, it was more interesting than it was entertaining. He had been angry and willing to fight the 'Sutorian' only moments before, but now the attitude of the alien as well as Cantalo's comments was starting to make the young boy want to hear him out.

Irritated, the alien look around at the crowd that was beginning to form around him with contempt. When he next spoke, it was to everyone, not just Cantalo and Kaido.

"You cretins are stupid if you think I'm going to spend a minute longer on this blasted world than I have to. I mean, do any of you really need the damn registry to get something done? I have riches to offer, an enemy to be killed! Shouldn't that be enough for you people?"

The crowd didn't respond the way the Sutorian wished it would. Some laughed at his attempt to entice them into breaking protocol, while others hurled insults in attempts to damage the alien's large ego. Finally, Cantalo extended his arm, his palm opening to reveal the formation of an attack.

Before he could fire, the Sutorian finally relented.

"Fine! You're the ones missing out, not me."

Like that, the man began to walk away with the soldiers around them all enjoying the interaction. Where Kaido had once been angry and ready to fight, he was curious. The mission board was open to him, and all he could think about was asking the alien what his job was.

Without saying anything, Kaido began to follow, all until Cantalo spoke up.

"Focus, boy. You can fight the weakling after you've found something."

Kaido did stop for a moment, but he didn't turn his back to irritated Sutorian. He just took a moment to think of what excuse to give, and quickly he found that he had none. Instead, he barked out an order. An order. To his superior. Yeah, he wasn't exactly thinking it through very well.

"Just… take my spot in the queue, I know what job I want if this doesn't work out!"

And like that, he was out of there, following the Sutorian out of the establishment and into the chalk-colored slums of Cooler No. 37. He only made it a few feet out of the building before the Sutorian turned his head to question why the boy was still following him.

"What do you-"

Kaido didn't give him the time to speak, he just asked what came to mind.

"Your job. What is it, what does it pay?"

Then the alien who only a minute ago was irritated and offended by the mere presence of the Cooler Corps soldiers allowed a satisfied smile to come to his face. It seemed he'd interested at least one person with the prospect of a job...


End file.
